Cyberpunk 2077 Reveals The Damage Done

If you go by sheer optics alone, things haven't been all that great for "Cyberpunk 2077." When the highly anticipated title launched in December 2020, it did so in a pretty poor state. Countless bugs hampered the gameplay experience and left many fans — some who'd been waiting years to play the game — downright furious. Developer CD Projekt Red went so far as to apologize over the whole episode, offering refunds to those unhappy with their purchase. PlayStation even took the dramatic step of pulling "Cyberpunk 2077" from its digital store entirely.

In a recent investor call, CDPR got into the nitty gritty about how the "Cyberpunk" launch debacle ultimately affected the game's sales. For all of the backlash the studio faced over the game's bugs, it may surprise you to learn just how few gamers wanted their money back.

According to Kotaku, CD Projekt Red reported that "Cyberpunk 2077" has sold 13.7 million copies so far. Out of all of those copies, released on a plethora of platforms, the studio has only had to issue 30,000 refunds. To put a percentage on it, that's roughly 0.2% of all "Cyberpunk 2077" sales.

The act of granting refunds to unhappy customers did lose CD Projekt Red some money. As Kotaku noted, the company's decision to do so ended up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.17 million. When compared to CDPR's revenue for 2020, however — which surpassed $560 million — the money lost on refunds wasn't really all that significant.

In fact, CD Projekt Red thinks that "Cyberpunk 2077" could've sold even more had PlayStation not gotten involved.

In a report from IGN, the outlet states that CD Projekt Red essentially blames Sony for some of its lost sales. According to CDPR, "Cyberpunk" getting pulled from the PlayStation Store not only affected sales on that platform directly, but may have also "indirectly affected gamers' decision to purchase the game on other platforms."

At the moment, "Cyberpunk 2077" is still unavailable from the PlayStation Store, though CD Projekt Red believes that its latest patch could help get the game listed again. When that happens, sales for "Cyberpunk" could take off even more. The game could experience what is more or less a second launch.

For now, it appears there's been an awful lot of negative chatter around "Cyberpunk 2077," but not enough to really hurt the game in the long run. It's still a massive seller and a critical darling to some, and it seems the vast majority of those who purchased the game weren't bothered by the bugs enough to return it.