CD PROJEKT RED Victim of Targeted Cyber Attack

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Image: CD PROJEKT RED



Hackers have found their way into CD PROJEKT RED’s servers. Calling this a targeted cyber attack, the company has reached out to law enforcement and other authorities to investigate the incident. The hackers left a ransom note stating that they obtained the source code for Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3, Gwent, and even an unreleased version of The Witcher 3. They threatened that if CDPR didn’t agree to their terms, the code would be sold or leaked and other stolen documents would be sent out to damage the company’s reputation and financial standing.



Developers having their data stolen has become an increasingly common event. While some devices in its network were encrypted, CD PROJEKT RED said that it was...

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[Dan_D]

The problem here is that after the source code and data have been examined, we'll probably find out just how much content was cut from the game and what features it was really supposed to have. We'll also potentially have some idea of what's coming later on or what the state of the game truly is in terms of how much CDPR has for it that we haven't seen yet. In other words, some of the systems that are missing could be nearly complete or may not exist at all. The former might be encouraging but the latter would severely harm CDPR's already shattered reputation.

These details I suspect, will confirm that what we got was more or less an alpha build and the game was a year or more away from being ready for release. Some of the other stuff like HR and accounting information may also lead to a reveal that CDPR knowingly and deliberately shat out the game well ahead of schedule to get the sales on the 2020 calendar and that it was done to appease investors. CDPR could really come clean and out all its dirty laundry concerning the game's development and take the wind right out of the hacker's sails. However, I suspect doing so would give the prosecutors in their court cases everything they need to nail CDPR to the wall. I mean, we already "know" a lot of this stuff but we don't have confirmation that these things are certain.

Worse yet, some of these decisions could amount to massive fines for CDPR's executives and even possible jail time if they violated labor laws at any point during the game's development. To be clear, I don't think CDPR knowingly committed fraud in the sense that there wasn't an intent to deceive gamers and customers but rather CDPR fell prey to its own greed. They took a "release it now, fix it later" approach to the game. That is, CDPR intends to deliver on its promises at some point. Unfortunately, this attitude has become the norm for game developers and publishers who do this all the time. Fallout 76, Anthem and No Man's Sky are three of the most egregious examples of this. Of course, let's not forget that many of CDPR's fans issued death threats against the developer if they didn't release the game and made it clear that no more delays would be tolerated. People wanted the game to be released even if it was buggy and then bitched when they got what they asked for.

To a large degree, it's a hell of CDPR's own making. It's constant releases of gameplay footage and trailers over a period of 7 or 8 years built up expectations and hype for the game that were unrealistic. Cyberpunk 2077 was never going to live up to the hype CDPR's marketing team generated for it. Had they been quieter about the game's progress and expected features, they wouldn't be in this predicament now. Then again, it wouldn't have sold some 13 million copies without the hype train. (Refunds not withstanding.)

 

[Burticus]

Maybe the hackers can fix some of the bugs using their source code.

 

[Dan_D]

Maybe the hackers can fix some of the bugs using their source code.

I'm hoping that code leaks out to the modding community. Then we'll see some real progress on the game.