By Fallout 4 and in particular Fallout 76, it felt like the audience had much less patience for games that launched in a less-than-ideal state.Īfter all, Bethesda was once a pioneer in these kinds of sprawling open-world RPGs, but now there are many more to choose from, this year's Elden Ring being a prime example, and if they can ship in a decent state (which, some stuttering issues on PC aside, it did) then why should people accept another 'coming in hot' project from Bethesda?
It felt like with Oblivion and Skyrim, at least, the bugs were as amusing as they were annoying, and the community pitching in to 'fix' parts of the game was part of the charm (though tough luck to anyone who bought Skyrim on PS3). There's also been a change in atmosphere around that. Launches like that have knock-on effects that CDPR will have to deal with in years to come.Īnd Bethesda is a company with a reputation for releasing games that are, essentially, pretty janky when they first come out. Cyberpunk 2077 sold well enough to merit the inevitable sequel, but selling that one is going to be a hell of a lot harder. (PCG scored Cyberpunk 2077 79% at launch.) It's also particularly relevant because Cyberpunk was intended to be the glorious beginning of a new franchise for developers CDPR, its cool futuristic alternative to the grizzled fantasy of the Witcher. Given recent history, another buggy Bethesda game launch has the potential to backfire in massive fashion.Ĭyberpunk 2077 was a hotly anticipated, cross-platform, 'revolutionary' game that, of course, turned out to be… well, if we're being kind, it was decent, and very buggy.