Valve's Newell feels bad for CD Projekt over Cyberpunk 2077's troubled launch

Gaben says the studio should ignore the vitriol and focus on making the game better.

The founder of PC giant Valve Gabe Newell has said that he has "a lot of sympathy" for Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt.

Speaking to New Zealand publication TVNZ.com, the exec said that he felt that some aspects of the recently-launched sci-fi RPG are "just brilliant." He went on to say that people shouldn't throw stones at CD Projekt because what the studio has achieved is "pretty amazing."

"I have a lot of sympathy with a situation that every game developer finds themselves in," he said.

"All I know is that there are a lot of very happy gamers in the PC space, which are the ones that are most visible to us.

"There are aspects of the game that are just brilliant, and it shows a tremendous amount of work — it's unfair to throw stones at any other developer, because just getting something as complex and ambitious as that out the door is pretty amazing."

Newell then said that he has received hate-filled feedback from fans in the past and that the best opportunity is to ignore the vitriol and deliver a great product that addresses fan concerns.

"When people have those kinds of reactions, my first thought is that this is an opportunity for us, and I assume that the Cyberpunk 2077 developers are similarly just using it to crank through and make improvements that are going to be beneficial to their customers," he said.

"They have a long history of doing a great job, of continuing to invest in their products over time and I suspect that they're going to be very good at making their customers happy over time.

"Everybody knows that if you're in this business, expectations are high, and if you do it well people are going to let you know and if you failed to meet those expectations they're are going to let you know — that's part of why it's a fun industry."

Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10 but shipped with a huge number of technical bugs and glitches. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions of the game are of such low quality that Sony and Microsoft are offering refunds, while the former even took the unusual step of taking the game off the PlayStation Store altogether.

CD Projekt staff reportedly didn't think that the game would ship in 2020, with a report refuting claims by studio management that they weren't aware of the problems facing Cyberpunk 2077.

As if that wasn't enough, the studio is also facing lawsuits from investors who claim they were misled by the Polish firm.