This can't be happening; not again!

 Woe. WOE IS ME!

So there I was, indulging in the innately beautiful act of watching someone's first experience with 'Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines', fully immersed in the ironically outdated 2000's picture of 'cool vampiric nightlife' only to be struck. Like a diamond bullet to the head, shattering me into a thousand pieces. And no, Colonel Kurtz, this wasn't some sudden epiphany about the depths of human degeneracy or the hypocrisy of morality spurred on by watching yet another vampire wave their hands in apparent pain whilst calling it dancing, this was the bullet of cold, hard truth. The truth that despite all the promises, the words of consolation, the very heavens themselves singing their blessing upon the project, Cyberpunk 2077 is to be delayed once again. This time out of November and into December. In the words of the Cyberpunk 2077 official twitter; "Well Fu**".

I can't tell if this pain that I'm feeling right now is the dull ache of betrayal or just the deficit for the shock that I should have been hit with last night, because I was certainly not feeling this way when I heard about it. I was absolutely delirious, stumbling about like a drunk man, absolutely gobsmacked by a reality that simply couldn't be real. For at least a full 10 minutes there were no words uttered from my mouth except for "No", because this was surely an impossibility. We're talking about the third delay for this game, one which was set to release almost a full year previously, and has now been pushed back to the very last feasible moment of 2020. This is, of course, just a few weeks after being declared 'Gold' by the team. That's usually an indication that things are on track and that at this point a delay is out of the question, an assurance to consumers, employees and store owners who are desperate to get this future blockbuster out of the gate. An assurance made too early, it would seem, far too early.

As with every CDPR announcement, this news came with a whole in-depth message explaining themselves that reads a little like a primary school student who vastly overestimated their abilities in the group project. They try to tell us that we misunderstand exactly what it 'means' to go gold, and subtly imply that it's normal for projects to delay themselves in order to pave the way for a day zero patch. (Or is it for a day zero patch to become obsolete? I don't know anymore, cognitive reasoning fails me.) They offer their apologies and leave us all to flounder in the dirt, not even bothering to renew their, now-weightless, assurances that this time would be the one. No more delays now, right guys? Who the heck knows anymore, we were less than 30 days out, this is insane. I've been understanding in the past, and even a little bit angry, (it was going to be on my Birthday, I think I was justified) but now I'm just overwhelmingly sad.

Of course there will be those that are tripping over themselves to cheerlead for this game with their typical "The game will be ready when it's ready guys!" and "It'll be better for the extra time", and their usual condescending refrains. We get it, okay, of course the game will be ready when it's ready! The problem is the constant playing with expectations up until the last possible moment and then moving of the goalposts yet again. For pathetic beings like myself who allow ourselves to become excited and invested, it just starting to feel a little mocking at this point. (Remember how they pushed back the April date in freakin' February!) And with recent revelations we now know that we aren't the only one's who were blind sided with these tweets; recent exposés into the company have revealed how such delays are conveyed to the public simultaneously with the staff, so a lot of people just learnt they were getting 21 extra days of crunch out of nowhere; that's gotta suck even more.

I think if there's one prevailing takeaway for all this it's to really take a look at the sort of power that CDPR are wielding right now, and I'm talking supreme dominance over the entire industry, kind of power. These people know that the game in their hands is likely destined to be a best seller that will influence similar games for years at the very least; and the sort of game that these market owners are salivating for. Whatsmore, the new systems which are coming out in November desperately need a big title to rest their sales on, and if first parties can't be hammered down than Cyberpunk would have been the next best thing. CDPR are playing fickle with the heavy hitters and it has to be driving Microsoft and Sony absolutely insane right now. I wouldn't be surprised if they're even more more angry than the consumers, as they may have serious finical ramifications in store for such a last minute delay during a crucial sales period. (Luckily I think December still lands in the same financial quarter so perhaps passions haven't been too inflamed by CDPR's behaviour)

At least one funny takeaway from this all has been one of the most public consequences of this whole, let the staff know along with the fans, policy. The very sassy Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter which has been active since the second trailer for this game, had spent the past few months assuring the worried that the release date was immutable and that was a word they could take to the bank. Most famously was one Twitter user who literally inquired a day before this news about whether or not they could apply for time off at work in order to make the midnight launch. One day later and the Cyberpunk Twitter was looking very precariously at the amount of assurances it had made whilst jokingly musing about the possibility of deleting past tweets. Such is the reckoning for broken promises.

As for me, I'm upset. You mean have deduced a little about the sort of person that I am through these blogs, although even if you haven't there should be some things that are obvious; I'm not the most complicated person in the world. I get excited by the simple things in life and all I need is a promising release date to look forward to. I don't want no Call of Duty, I don't care about the new consoles, Ubisoft's latest tech-demo can wait until it's sufficiently discounted before I pick it up; all I wanted was Cyberpunk. At this point it feels like the team is just hauling ass to desperately get this game out before the end of 2020 so that they can make that joke about how they bought out the Cyberpunk 2020 adaptation in 2020. (Is that literally it? I bet it is.)

So yeah, Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be the ruination of us all. We'll be waiting until the Rapture for this game to come out, all the while CDPR will delight in pushing back the goal posts perpetually. Fair is foul and foul is fair, hell is empty and all the devils are here and goddamn it I just want to play this stupid game! To hell with another Night City Wire, or another hundred at this rate, just let me play the damn thing so I can move on with my meaningless and dull life in my march towards the grave. Is that too much to ask? To get to roleplay as a cool Cyberpunk man before death? Because I didn't think it was but now I'm wondering... and am I overreacting? Hell yeah I am, my patience is run out and I'm still delirious. Damn you CDPR, this game better be amazing...