Cyberpunk 2077 Designer Says Phantom Liberty Cannot Erase the Game's Troubled Launch

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has become one of CD Projekt Red's biggest success stories, but designer Pawel Sasko has stressed that the expansion's acclaim and commercial performance should not be used to rewrite the history of the base game's launch.

Marking three years since Phantom Liberty arrived, Sasko reflected on the expansion, its reported sales of more than 15 million copies, and the creative lessons he took from making it. His message was appreciative of the team's work and the audience that embraced the expansion, but it also directly acknowledged the serious problems that surrounded Cyberpunk 2077 when it launched in December 2020.

"I do not think Phantom Liberty erases the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, and I would never want to tell our story that way," Sasko wrote.

It is a notable statement because the conversation around Cyberpunk 2077 has changed dramatically over the years. The game is now often discussed alongside its major post-launch updates, the hugely influential Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime tie-in, and the well-received Phantom Liberty expansion. That turnaround has been substantial, but Sasko's comments underline an important point: improvement does not undo what players encountered at release.

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A launch that left lasting damage

Cyberpunk 2077 arrived after years of anticipation, multiple delays, and an enormous amount of attention directed at CD Projekt Red following the success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Expectations were extremely high. Instead, many players encountered severe technical and performance problems, particularly on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.

The issues went beyond the kind of isolated bugs that can accompany a large open-world RPG. Reports and footage of crashes, visual glitches, unstable performance, missing features, broken quests, and strange NPC behavior spread quickly. The disparity between the game's ambitious presentation and the experience many customers received on older console hardware became a central part of the launch's fallout.

The response was unusually severe for a blockbuster game. Several storefronts offered refunds, while Sony took the extraordinary step of removing the game from the PlayStation Store for a period of time. Before that removal, the PlayStation Store carried a warning advising customers not to purchase the PlayStation 4 version. Those developments made the launch a defining controversy for both the game and CD Projekt Red.

That history matters even after years of patches and improvements. A game can become better, win over new players, and earn fresh praise without the original customers' frustrations becoming irrelevant. Sasko's comments recognize that distinction. The success of Phantom Liberty may demonstrate the studio's ability to recover and produce excellent work, but it does not erase the disappointment, technical problems, or loss of trust caused by the base game's initial state.

The long path to a better Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red spent years working to improve Cyberpunk 2077. The studio released a steady stream of patches intended to address performance concerns, crashes, bugs, and broader stability issues. Over time, those updates reshaped both the game itself and the public perception surrounding it.

A major turning point came with the 1.5 update, commonly associated with the game's next-generation upgrade period. That update represented more than a routine round of fixes. It helped signal that the studio was committed to rebuilding the experience instead of moving on quickly from its troubled release. Subsequent updates continued that work.

The renewed attention around Cyberpunk: Edgerunners also played a major role in the game's resurgence. The animated series brought new fans into Night City and encouraged many former players to return. The accompanying game update helped connect that increased interest to an improved version of the RPG, giving the wider Cyberpunk universe a cultural moment that extended far beyond the original launch narrative.

Then came Phantom Liberty, an expansion that was widely embraced for its focused spy-thriller story, major characters, meaningful choices, and polished presentation. Rather than simply adding more content to the existing formula, it became a showcase for how much more assured the team had become in building stories inside Night City.

For many players, the expansion helped cement the view that Cyberpunk 2077 had evolved into the game it should have been at launch. But "should have been" is the critical phrase. The expansion's quality can be evidence of a recovery while also serving as a reminder of what was missing when the base game first reached customers.

Phantom Liberty passes 15 million copies

Sasko said that Phantom Liberty has now sold more than 15 million copies. That is a major milestone for an expansion, and it illustrates how strongly the Cyberpunk brand recovered following its early setbacks.

Yet Sasko's reflection did not frame that sales figure as the only measure of success. Instead, he focused on what the project taught him about game direction and the development process. He highlighted the value of trusting people, making choices carry real weight, allowing characters room to breathe, and accepting the scars involved in making something as demanding as a large-scale game expansion.

"Phantom Liberty sold more than 15 million copies by now," Sasko wrote. "I am incredibly grateful for those numbers, but what stays with me most after three years is what making this expansion taught me about directing games, trusting people, making choices meaningful, giving characters space to breathe and accepting the scars that come with making something this difficult."

Those remarks point to why Phantom Liberty resonated beyond its numerical performance. Its story was built around pressure, espionage, personal loyalties, and decisions that do not resolve into easy victories. The expansion's final choices became a particularly prominent part of the discussion among players because of the consequences attached to them.

That approach reflects a broader strength in CD Projekt Red's role-playing games: the willingness to let difficult decisions remain difficult. A choice feels more meaningful when players cannot immediately identify a perfect answer, and when characters are allowed to have motives, flaws, and emotional lives that do not fit neatly into a quest marker's objective. Sasko's comments suggest that these were not accidental qualities but areas the team consciously developed while making the expansion.

Recovery is not the same as revisionism

Video game communities often use the language of "redemption arcs" when discussing major releases that launch in a poor state and improve over time. It is understandable shorthand. Years of patches can transform performance, add features, fix broken systems, and make a game more enjoyable. In the best cases, developers demonstrate a genuine commitment to the players who stayed with the game.

Still, there is a risk in treating the recovery story as though it automatically resolves every problem associated with the original release. Not every customer returned after launch. Not everyone received the experience they expected, and not every player can or wants to revisit a game years later to see whether it has changed.

Sasko's statement pushes back against the cleaner version of that narrative. It allows room for both truths: Phantom Liberty is a success, and Cyberpunk 2077 had a launch severe enough that it remains a lasting blemish on CD Projekt Red's record. Acknowledging the latter does not diminish the work that went into achieving the former.

In fact, an honest accounting arguably makes the later accomplishment more meaningful. The studio did not simply release a popular expansion. It had to rebuild confidence through extensive fixes, ongoing support, and an expansion that proved it could deliver the kind of character-driven, consequential RPG storytelling audiences had hoped to find in Night City from the beginning.

What the reflection means for CD Projekt Red

CD Projekt Red now faces the challenge of carrying those lessons into its future projects. The studio's reputation was once closely tied to the goodwill generated by The Witcher 3; the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 showed how quickly that goodwill could be damaged when a product reaches the public before it is ready for a large portion of its audience.

The eventual recovery shows another side of the studio: a capacity to listen, revise, and improve over a long period. But it also establishes a higher standard for what comes next. Players will reasonably expect future releases to reflect what the company learned about technical readiness, platform performance, transparent communication, and the importance of delivering on expectations at launch rather than years afterward.

For now, Phantom Liberty stands as a major achievement for the Cyberpunk team. More than 15 million copies is an impressive commercial result, while the expansion's reception has given Night City a stronger creative legacy than seemed possible during the chaotic weeks after the base game's release.

But Sasko's reflection provides the right perspective on that success. Phantom Liberty does not need to erase Cyberpunk 2077's launch to be valuable. It can be an acclaimed expansion, a lesson in creative growth, and a landmark in the game's long recovery while the industry and its players still remember how difficult that recovery had to be.