Cyberpunk 2077 famously had a disastrous launch that saw the game delisted on the PlayStation store and even had CD Projekt personally refund over 30,000 copies. It then spent the next year fixing all the various technical issues before finally working on updating it for current-gen consoles.
A recent report from Upper Echelon Gamers explored this topic and alleged much of Cyberpunk 2077’s launch issues could be blamed on Quantic Lab, a Romanian company contracted to provide QA testing for Cyberpunk. Among Upper Echelon’s claims was Quantic Lab promising CD Projekt a team of veteran testers but instead providing the Polish developer with junior testers with less than a year of experience. Upper Echelon’s source at Quantic also alleged staff were told to report a set number of bugs per day, meaning CD Projekt received a deluge of minor issues that might have obscured more major technical problems.
Speaking to VGC, Quantic Lab CEO Stefan Seicarescu didn’t deny the allegations but did say that Upper Echelon seemed to have a fundamental misunderstanding of game development and the QA process.
"The video published on social media as mentioned in your article starts with incorrect statements about Quantic Lab's history," said Seicarescu. "There seems to be a lack of understanding in the process of how a game is tested before its release to the market. Quantic Lab supports over 200 projects per year from several global leading publishers and continues to maintain a quality comes first approach to all the work we undertake."
Seicarescu also suggested that Quantic Lab was likely not the only QA testing firm attached to Cyberpunk 2077.
"All our customer agreements are confidential but in general, global publishers are working with several QA outsourcing companies, not depending solely on one, in addition to internal QA resources at developer level in most cases. Each project we undertake is unique with regard [to] project requirements. Project direction is agreed and adjusted accordingly as per real time requirements with our clients," Seicarescu said.
"Quantic Lab always strives to work with transparency and integrity with our industry partners."
A CD Projekt spokesperson declined to comment.