Two weeks after the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red is facing a class action lawsuit. But the filing isn’t on behalf of players who may feel burned over a pre-release cycle that hid the state of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Rather, it’s on behalf of investors.
Yesterday, the Manhattan-based Rosen Law Firm filed suit in California’s Central District “on behalf of persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded CD Projekt Red securities between January 16, 2020, and December 17, 2020.” Translated: stockholders, specifically those who picked up stock in the past year or so.
An accompanying press release, issued yesterday afternoon, spells out the complaint:
(1) Cyberpunk 2077 was virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or Playstation systems due to an enormous number of bugs; (2) as a result, Sony would remove Cyberpunk 2077 from the Playstation store, and Sony, Microsoft and CD Projekt would be forced to offer full refunds for the game; (3) consequently, CD Projekt would suffer reputational and pecuniary harm; and (4) as a result, defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
The lead plaintiff in the case is Andrew Trampe, but the press release states the law firm is looking for other investors to join.
Cyberpunk 2077’s console launch has been mired in bugs and crashes, so much so that Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation store alongside offering refunds. Xbox and various physical retailers have also been offering refunds. The game has sold an estimated 13 million copies despite its technical problems, which CDPR management downplayed pre-release. The studio has been patching the game since launch.
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