CD Projekt Red denies Cyberpunk 2077 refund offer — here's what we know

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Disappointed Cyberpunk 2077 fans will have to use regular return methods

Cyberpunk 2077
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

Cyberpunk 2077's launch has been a bit of a rough ride. There have been countless delays followed by wide-ranging reports of bugs and performance issues that are rendering the game unplayable for many users. Worst of all most of the bugs won't be repaired until next year with two planned patches in January and February.

The company appeared to buy a bit of goodwill yesterday with a statement that clearly implied it would be offering refunds to those who couldn't get a refund through their original purchase method. Later in the day, CD Projekt Red's (CDPR) SVP of business development, Michal Nowakowski, told a different story on an investor call shooting down the notion that any special refunds would be offered (via Kotaku).

In case you missed the original statement from CDPR, the company first apologized for not making the performance issues on PS4 and Xbox One known in advance and promised to patch the game to correct these issues in the coming months. The message then closed with advice regarding refunds including an email address for anyone that was unable to get a refund processed by normal methods and gave them a week to reach out to this address.

It would be incredibly difficult to come away from reading that statement, including the email address itself "helpmerefund@cdprojektred.com," and not conclude that some kind of refund program was in place. However, Nowakowski was quite clear in his denial. He stated, "Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is not different than with any other title released on any of those storefronts. I want to state that clearly, as there seem to be certain misconceptions."

The incompetent handling of this situation seems par for the course with Cyberpunk 2077's launch, but it doesn't make it less disappointing. Any goodwill has certainly been erased by this stance from CDPR. And as we said yesterday, if you haven't purchased the game yet it is one that we would advise waiting on, particularly if you haven't yet upgraded to a PS5 or Xbox Series X. If you did already buy the game and are disappointed in the performance, you probably are still within the return window, so go ahead and take advantage of that.

Sean Riley
Sean Riley

Sean Riley has been covering tech professionally for over a decade now. Most of that time was as a freelancer covering varied topics including phones, wearables, tablets, smart home devices, laptops, AR, VR, mobile payments, fintech, and more.  Sean is the resident mobile expert at Laptop Mag, specializing in phones and wearables, you'll find plenty of news, reviews, how-to, and opinion pieces on these subjects from him here. But Laptop Mag has also proven a perfect fit for that broad range of interests with reviews and news on the latest laptops, VR games, and computer accessories along with coverage on everything from NFTs to cybersecurity and more.