I think people are too focused on the number of copies already sold, and too little on the long-term sales projections, as well as potential damages to the brand.
GTA V, first released in 2013, is still hanging around at the top of sales charts every single month. If CD Projekt Red's goal was to have a cash cow of their own while funding and developing new titles (not necessarily to the same extent as GTA does for Rockstar, but still), that will be much harder to accomplish now. They are still working on fixing this game, multiplayer has been dropped (for now), potential MTX and DLC sales will be lower with the smaller than expected player base (due to lower sales and players moving on), and so on.
If the game is far from meeting its long term sale expections, and growing further away from them by the day, while costing more than expected due to the time and resources needed to "fix" it, it is a flop. If the reception to the game and the response to it caused it to be pulled from PSN and lead to severe damages in the relationship between the company and its consumer base, it is a flop.
It's not as if CDPR's costs will suddenly halt tomorrow, and a brand new game will pop into existence the day after. The Witcher was release in 2007, TW2 in 2011, TW3 in 2015, and Cyberpunk in 2020. If their next major title was planned for, say, 2025, this situation will mean a delay for that game (and to the cash flows it will bring) and significantly lower revenue during that period. Again, a flop.
I do not believe CDPR will go bankrupt or anything of the sort, but they are most certainly not where they thought they would be a year ago. Seeing management being rewarded such large sums despite playing the largest part in this mess is laughable, and reading people defend it is saddening.
It's not scapegoating. At all. We aren't discussing other companies in this thread. It's specifically about an article which dives into CDPR's business practices. Many of us are calling out those practices, as discussed in the article, as greedy. Literally *every other company in existence* could be doing the same thing and it wouldn't be relevant to a discussion about whether or not those practices are greedy.
You're engaging in whataboutism instead of contributing to the discussion.
The "I suffered so others must as well" sort of mentality is deeply detrimental to the betterment of people's lives. Sad to see it be so prevalent in this thread.
