'Cyberpunk 2077' publisher's stock plummets 22% after Sony pulls the buggy game from its online store and offers refunds

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'Cyberpunk 2077' publisher's stock plummets 22% after Sony pulls the buggy game from its online store and offers refunds
"Cyberpunk 2077".CD Projekt Red

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  • CD Projekt stock tumbled as much as 22% to a nine-month low on Friday.
  • The "Cyberpunk 2077" developer shed up to $1.8 billion in market capitalization after Sony said it would pull the buggy game from its PlayStation store and provide refunds to players.
  • CD Projekt apologized on Monday for disappointing players and promised to fix the problems in the coming weeks.
  • "After three delays, we were too focused on releasing the game," co-CEO Adam Kicinski said during an analyst call this week. "It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

CD Projekt shares plunged as much as 22% to a nine-month low on Friday as the Polish game studio suffered fresh backlash to its release of a bug-ridden "Cyberpunk 2077" last week.

Sony announced on Friday that it was pulling the video game from its PlayStation Store and offering full refunds to players following a wave of complaints about the long-awaited title. The news erased the equivalent of $1.8 billion from CD Projekt's market capitalization.

CD Projekt apologized for disappointing players on Monday, and pledged to fix the game through software updates over the coming months. It also offered refunds to those who bought the game for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, as the experience is especially bad on those older consoles.

Players have reported frequent crashes, poor graphics, choppy frame rates, and characters and objects repeatedly glitching.

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"After three delays, we were too focused on releasing the game," co-CEO Adam Kicinski said during an analyst call on Monday. "We underestimated the scale and complexity of the issues. We ignored the signals about the need for additional time to refine the game on the base last-gen consoles. It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy."

Fortunately for the embattled developer, it can afford a few refunds. It turned a profit on the game before it even launched, thanks to pre-order sales of more than 8 million copies.

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