Sony have taken the unusual, nigh on unprecedented, move of removing Cyberpunk 2077 for sale from the PlayStation Store and are offering refunds to anyone who purchased the game.
“SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice,” reads a new page on PlayStation.com.
“Once we have confirmed that you purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store, we will begin processing your refund. Please note that completion of the refund may vary based on your payment method and financial institution.”
CD Projekt RED recently suggested unsatisfied players should request a refund from Sony but there are strict rules on when you can get a refund on goods purchased via the PlayStation Store.
If you have started to download or stream the purchased content, you will not be eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty.
Many posts on Reddit and Twitter have shown that Sony were refusing to issue refunds as the customer had already played the game and instead was telling them to wait for a patch in February next year. It seems CDPR have talked to Sony and asked them to relax the rule as the following statement was issued by CDPR to investors:
The Management Board of CD PROJEKT SA with its seat in Warsaw (hereinafter the “Company”) publishes the decision of Sony Interactive Entertainment (hereinafter “SIE”) to remove the digital version of Cyberpunk 2077 from sale from PlayStation Store until further notice. The decision was made after the Company’s consultations with SIE representatives regarding the possibility of returning the game to people who purchased it in a digital version via PlayStation Store and would like to return it.
This was also confirmed in a tweet from the Cyberpunk account.
Important Update for @PlayStation Users pic.twitter.com/fCB4z74M3z
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 18, 2020
The game will remain on sale for PlayStation in physical form and it will continue to receive patches and will no doubt return to the PlayStation store, but no date has been set. The announcement has had a devastating effect on CDPR’s share price.
https://t.co/ep2j6IR0P2 pic.twitter.com/xIJPCBi3nT
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 18, 2020
Congratulations to Microsoft, who have managed, without spending a single dollar, to get a timed digital exclusive for their consoles!
UPDATE: The game is staying on the Xbox Store. ““We are not in such discussions with Microsoft at the moment,” Adam Kicinski said in a statement to Reuters. This is almost certainly because Microsoft have a promotional deal with CDPR, including a Cyberpunk branded console and the Xbox logo at the end of all Cyberpunk 2077 adverts.
Starman
Well that is a surprising move. Fortunately the refund rules and process is a lot less strict on xbox, and you can still get a refund after playing the game and finding out it’s not as expected.
gazzagb
“everyone who is not willing to wait for updates” Gotta love how they’re putting the blame on people being unsatisfied after buying their unfinished product…
MrYd
Well done Sony for taking it off the store, I guess. On the other hand, they still happily sell various other games that are similarly broken with framerates that drop to unplayable at times. (Just Cause 3? Control? Just 2 examples that annoyed me by ruining otherwise decent games by turning into a slideshow at times)
What are the chances of MS doing the same? I won’t criticise them just yet, since it’s only been a couple of hours since they announced it’s being taken off the PS store, but it’s not going to look good for MS if it’s still there by the end of the day.
I guess that PS5 version might be a while coming now. Might even manage to get a PS5 before then.
MrYd
So we can criticise MS now then? Looks like Sony told CDPR “We’re taking your broken game off the store. Do you want to say it was after discussion with us to make you look good? We’re doing it anyway”
And MS said “All that marketing money! Keep selling the broken game!”
I think Sony come out looking the best out of this. MS and CDPR are quite happy to keep making money from a broken game unless they’re forced to stop.
Starman
The xbox refund policy already allows you to refund a game within 2 weeks and less than 2 hours play. More than enough time to decide if its not up to standard. Quit being so determined to paint Microsoft as the bad guy.
MrYd
Given that MS are still selling a broken game, they’re not the good guys in this case.
And is 2 hours enough to decide if it’s broken? Which parts of the game suffer from the unacceptable performance? Is it right from the start? There are also reports of save files getting corrupted once they reach a certain size. That’s the sort of issue that is likely to come up after the first couple of hours.
You can’t really be defending MS in this, can you? Still selling a broken game and just potentially offering refunds. If they want to. Requesting a refund before they admitted it was shit and being denied seems to be causing problems.
TrannosaurusBex
Time to buy me some shares I think! Anyone that can recommend a good, easy to look at and manage stock website website?
camdaz
Its such a rare thing for Sony to pull a major release it made the 1 o’clock news on the BBC.