Stadia games: ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ delayed until November [Updated]

Kyle Bradshaw | Jun 18 2020 - 9:53 am PT

Without a doubt, the one game that more people have been hyped for, on Google Stadia and beyond, than any other this year is Cyberpunk 2077. Unfortunately, the game’s developers have just announced a major delay to Cyberpunk 2077’s release date.

Update: CD Projekt Red has once again delayed the release of Cyberpunk 2077.

As the name suggests, Cyberpunk 2077 is set in a dystopian version of the year 2077 in which technology has violently overrun humanity’s way of life. Between the gorgeous setting of “Night City,” the fantastic imagining of what tech can be 50 years from now, and the inclusion of Keanu Reeves, it’s no surprise that hopes have been excessively high for this game.

Back at E3 last year, Cyberpunk 2077 was given a release date of April 2020 along with a confirmation that the futuristic game would be coming to Google’s at-least-somewhat futuristic gaming platform Stadia.

Today, the game’s developers, CD Projekt Red — best known for their monumental contribution to gaming with The Witcher series — have taken to Twitter to share the unfortunate news of Cyberpunk 2077’s delay.

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

According to the statement, the Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed until September 17, 2020, primarily to give the team “more time to finish playtesting, fixing and polishing” the Night City experience. The delay comes just days after the announcement of a similar delay for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake and fellow Google Stadia title Marvel’s Avengers.

No launch date was ever given for the Google Stadia version of Cyberpunk 2077, leading some to believe that it would not launch at the same time as other platforms. With any luck, this delay will help push the Stadia launch to be simultaneous.

Update 6/18: Five months after delaying Cyberpunk 2077 into a September release date, and two months past the game’s originally planned April 16 launch, CD Projekt Red has unfortunately decided to once again delay Cyberpunk. Instead of launching on September 17, Cyberpunk 2077 is now looking at a November 19 launch.

In an honest and heartfelt statement, the developers explain that they “won’t ship something which is not ready.”

An important development update pic.twitter.com/uFGrt9Tqpi

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) June 18, 2020

In the time since the initial delay in January, the world has shifted radically due to COVID-19, forcing many studios to move their employees to working from home. With that in perspective, it’s easy to understand how the team may have gotten behind schedule on producing Cyberpunk 2077.

Considering the normal response to delays in the game development industry is to push teams into a crunch period, which is known to exhaust and burn out employees, it’s good to see CD Projekt Red choose to value their team and the game itself over meeting a particular release milestone.

As far as Google Stadia is concerned, we had recently heard that Cyberpunk 2077 would not release there simultaneously with other platforms. With the new release date set to be precisely on the one-year anniversary of Google Stadia’s launch, we’re not sure if that’s going to change at all with this second delay.