Nowakowski called the first week after launch the worst of his life

Michał Nowakowski said the first week after Cyberpunk 2077 launched was probably the worst of his life. In 10 days the studio sold 13 million copies, and at the same time a wave of criticism arrived over the technical state, above all on older consoles.

He remembers a call from Sony at one in the morning: the company had decided to pull the game from the PS Store. The studio expected to close the main bugs in one or two weeks. It took several months. Among the causes he names how work was organized in the pandemic: people saw their own separate problems and did not add them up into one picture.

After that, CD Projekt adopted a rule of a working build. If a build misses the requirements of a stage, the stage counts as failed: causes first, then more development.

The interview is here. The sales figure and the nighttime call sit side by side in the story on purpose.