After the unfortunate announcement that Cyberbunk 2077 will be delayed once more, many fans were understandably upset and honestly, they have every right to be. After all, the title has been delayed numerous times already, and it can be frustrating that CD Projekt Red has been hyping up its upcoming November release only to be pushed back again.
While their feelings of exasperation are truly valid, some fans have taken things a step further by sending death threats to some of the developers who worked on Cyberpunk 2077.
Despite its many delays, the upcoming action RPG is still considered to be one of the most highly-anticipated games this year. However, this kind of positive title comes with a sort of negativity as well. You see, with all the hype, fans have set high expectations for the game.
Every time it gets delayed, however, fans lose more and more faith in the title. Most if not all fans of Cyberpunk 2077 agree that this new announcement is disappointing at best, but sending death threats to innocent developers is completely unwarranted.
The news that developers were receiving death threats came from the title’s Lead Game Designer, Andrzej Zawadzki. He posted a tweet recently that called out those supposed fans who resorted to sending threats to air out their frustrations. Many fans replied in agreement and condemned this sort of lowly behavior.
I want to address one thing in regards of the @CyberpunkGame delay.
I understand you're feeling angry, disappointed and want to voice your opinion about it.
However, sending death threats to the developers is absolutely unacceptable and just wrong. We are people, just like you.— Andrzej Zawadzki (@ZawAndy) October 27, 2020
The fact that some developers have been receiving such threats is like rubbing salt on a wound, especially since Cyberpunk 2077’s devs found out about the delay at the same time as fans.
According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, the decision to delay the game was made by the higher-ups of CD Projekt Red, and the employees only received an email informing them of this decision at the same time as the announcement tweet was posted.
What makes things worse is the fact that CD Projekt Red has participated in the crunch culture of the video game industry. Cyberpunk 2077 developers have been working extra hard just to ensure the successful release of this game – up to 100 hours in a week, to be precise – and receiving death threats is definitely the last thing they need. Especially since they didn’t play any part in the game’s delay.
On the other hand, while this situation is disheartening, it should be said that sending death threats to anyone for whatever reason is never okay.
Unfortunately, irrational outbursts of this kind by a portion of Cyberpunk 2077’s fanbase potentially weakens the valid issues and complaints that fans have concerning the game and its development.
Zawadzki is commendable for validating the fans’ feelings first before calling them out for their actions, but it’s still a problem that no one deserves to face. Sending death threats to developers and other people with status is, unfortunately, a common thing in this industry.
All we can hope is that this kind of awful practice will end very soon. Not only is it potentially harmful, especially to a person’s mental health, it’s also a very immature way to handle one’s grievances.
