Even though Cyberpunk 2077 is considered to be one of the most highly-anticipated titles to be released this year, it appears that its pre-order sales have not reached CD Projekt Red’s expectations as the numbers are not doing as well other games.
On top of that, CD Projekt Red is currently under fire for mandatory crunch accusations as Cyberpunk 2077’s release date draws nearer. It’s safe to say that at the moment, the company is going through a rough patch.
For the past couple of weeks, fans have been given updates and sneak peeks about the game’s content and features. So, it was expected that given all the hype around the title, there would be a surge in preorder sales.
However, it appears that this is not the case for Cyberpunk 2077, as a recent report from a video games analytics firm reveals that the numbers for the futuristic action-adventure RPG title aren’t where they’re expected to be.
M Science, which is the firm in question, recently did an analysis report which showed unexpected news about the pre-order sales of CD Projekt Red’s upcoming game. In the report, it says that compared to where Red Dead Redemption 2 was during its pre-launch, which was around a comparable time, Cyberpunk 2077 is 31% behind.
On one hand, this may not be a fair comparison given the fact that Red Dead Redemption 2 was – and still is – such a widely popular game. However, CD Projekt Red is a major studio, and it’s highly likely that they have high goals as well.
Plus, Red Dead Online keeps racking up money for Rockstar via microtransactions, which must look delicious to other big studios.
That being said, the report does also say that things will start to look up for the studio as the release date draws closer, as they expect the pre-order numbers to increase. This means that there’s still hope for Cyberpunk 2077 and for the studio itself that they’ll come out of this pre-order cycle reaching their goals.
As you may remember, the title has been delayed so many times, so CD Projekt Red would naturally want a successful game. This can be seen in the way that the studio has been demanding more work time from the developers.
Although, this action might end up hurting the studio and the game’s pre-orders and sales if fans get agitated enough to boycott the title. Now, we wouldn’t be surprised if this does happen, given how easily moved to action people can get.
On another note, Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t the only game that did significantly better than Cyberpunk 2077 when you compare the timelines. However, it should be noted that in M Science’s report, it didn’t consider those games that are older than a year. There are actually a bunch of older games that have had extremely successful pre-order sales.
CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3 may be the studio’s most popular game, but this doesn’t mean that their later games can’t have the same amount of success and acclaim.
Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled to be released this November 19.
