I haven't played a computer game since the first Tomb Raider, so this is guaranteed to be an ignorant question, and I'm not even sure if I'm phrasing it correctly. However ....
At this point, isn't game development a reasonably standardized process with best-practice procedures, a master plan, managers, timetables, progress checks, quality control, etc.? From reading your reviews, and the history as related here, this thing is a mess! How in the world does something this goobered up a) even get created and b) get released? To put it indelicately, this company doesn't sound like it could organize a circle jerk at a Boy Scout camp.
I'm really curious what you folks who work in development think.
I think the problem is they started talking to the media too soon. It's the same problem that happened with Duke Nukem. The developer started telling people he started making it before he started making it, so he just made up shit during interviews, and figured out how to make it happen later. He kind of got intoxicated with this power, to make gamers and the press froth at the mouth by promising rediculous things, so he kept making up absurd new features every chance he got, when he got any little bit of publicity. He yanked the game this way and that, changing game engines every few years to try to stay current for over a decade, until he ran out of money, and Gearbox took it and released Duke Nukem Forever (which I don't think is as bad as people say, but the development process was horriffic).
With Cyberpunk, they have been talking about this for 5-6 years, doing all kinds of trailers and interviews, where they probably made up all kinds of wacky shit to impress the interviewer. Then they went back to the dev team after the interview and were all like "we have to rewrite all the levels to incorporate wall running!" Then they spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to make that work, and failing. Some CDPR people said they spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to make wall running work, and it didn't, so that's why it's not in the game. They promised A LOT of things that they did not deliver, and I think all those promises came from people saying stupid shit during interviews.
On top of that, this is a new game engine. It's a lot of work to make something good on a new game engine, especially for a small firm who only really had one AAA game before. Well, 3 games, but they were all the Witcher. This is their second attempt at a brand new AAA IP, and I think game studios are like rock bands. The first album slaps, but the second album is usually disappointing.
I think the takeaway is don't talk to the media. Be a competent manager, make a good product, then launch it as a surprise. Don't even bother giving out advance review copies. To launch, just hit publish on Steam, then send the critics some steam keys for it and tell them to have fun with their FREE GAME! If they are pissed off about reviving a brand new video game at launch, free of charge, instead of getting it 3 days before launch, then they probably don't actually like video games, anyway, and you should pity them for having to work in a field they hate. Let your work speak for itself. No external pressure, no crunching for a deadline because missing it would make you look bad in the press (although crunching before the money runs out would probably still be a thing). Just make a good game.
