Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed to September (thank goodness)

Vaunted game studio CD Projekt Red (CDPR) today revealed it would be delaying it’s much-anticipated RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, from this coming April to September 17.

We have important news regarding Cyberpunk 2077’s release date we’d like to share with you today. pic.twitter.com/aWdtR0grYV

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) January 16, 2020

This is far from the only game to be delayed so far this year. It’s becoming something of an epidemic. The Final Fantasy VII Remake was delayed from March to April, and the Avengers game has moved from May to September. But the Cyberpunk delay is the longest yet. CDPR says in its announcement on Twitter that, while the game is playable, it needs fixes, polish, and playtesting. It called the time bought by this delay “the precious months we need to make the game perfect.”

[Read: A eulogy for my deceased PS4 controller (2014-2020)]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sad that it’ll be yet awhile longer before I get my hands on CDPR’s next adventure, which I’ve been awaiting for seven years now.

But the early spring release season is especially crowded right now. At the moment, we’re looking at Ori & the Will of the Wisps, Animal Crossing: New Horizon, Doom Eternal, Persona 5 Royal, Resident Evil 3 Remake, and the first episode of Final Fantasy VII Remake all within the span of a month (March 11-April 10). I game as much as a human could reasonably be able to, and even I doubt I’ll be able to get all the time I want with each game before the next one comes out. That’s not even accounting for the fact that Half-Life: Alyx is supposed to come out at some point in the middle of all that.

In September, on the other hand, the only major release we know of so far is the Avengers game, which is due to come out on September 4. Two weeks with it before Cyberpunk? That’s a timeframe I can actually work with.

Besides, I suspect that this delay might be for reasons more complex that just a need for more QA testing, given the game’s rather rocky development cycle over the aforementioned seven-year period. It’s been dogged by rumors of brutal crunch, and the leaders of CDPR rather infamously said in a Kotaku interview that they’d started asking Cyberpunk‘s development staff to work nights and weekends, though it wasn’t “mandatory.” (Yeah, sure it wasn’t.)

The response I saw to these claims, that the company was working itself into the ground in an effort to get the game out in one piece, was more or less “We can wait. We’d rather wait.” Even now, there are some gamers breathing sighs of relief that the company is taking the time it’ll need to make the game great rather than overwork the developers to make it happen.

A reminder for y'all pic.twitter.com/ZqNCm2UovQ

— ?Charlotte? (@MatchaLottie) January 16, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 is currently available for pre-order on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.