CD Projekt Red is a prime example of what happens when a gaming studio has earned goodwill with its gamers. How if you treat your customer base well, they will in turn, return the favour tenfold. This also proves that it is more important than ever to LISTEN to your community as they are the driving force to your success.
Yes, I am late to the news but like all good things in life, better late than never! Yeah, that’s not how the saying goes but whatever. Today, I wanted to highlight this tweet that CD Projekt Red put out a couple of days ago:
#DidYouKnow — every third copy of the digital version of #Cyberpunk2077 for PC so far has been pre-ordered on @GOGcom! Thank you for your support — it’s breathtaking! pic.twitter.com/Oypidsi6lg
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) July 8, 2019
This is the result of the goodwill the company has garnered over the years. When you treat gamers with respect and hear them out, they will return that same respect back in bountiful. Every third gamer that bought a copy of CyberPunk 2077 didn’t have to go to GoG.com to buy the game, they chose to in their own free will in order to ensure that CD Projekt Red continues to be able to create the fantastic games that they love. A stark contrast to what some people in the gaming industry would like you to believe.
I’m of course referring to the article writing by VG24/7 in which they wrote that Game developers, should stop listening to the fans. I’m not even kidding here, you can check out the article here. It’s just baffling how disconnected these guys are to gaming. Shit, I’m not even that connected and I know that if game devs are trying to get their money from gamers, they’ll to listen to what gamers actually want. And I’m not just talking about going to forums and seeing what the guys are saying but just overall. Listen to the theme sound to compose the art that they’ll appreciate and cherish in time.
Of course, I kinda get his point in the article, that some people really do feel entitled, but what the article fails to realist is that, that’s a small majority of a community. These types of people can be found in any community if they’re loud enough.
However, the way that article came across, it sounded like “when gamer criticize it’s OK, but when journalist criticize it’s not OK“, and he uses that bases to make the rest of his hyperbole arguments. Like how gamers complain about balance issues, broken mechanic while not understanding the in’s and out’s of game developments, etc. Listen, these game devs know better than to listen to each and every single gamer wishes and desires. The idea is to take all the criticism and funnel it down to a single core than rings the truest among the criticism. The take the necessary action to please the MAJORITY, not everyone. The small minority of people who didn’t get what they want can either suck it up and play the game or go through a hissy fit somewhere else.
Then again, gamers are customers at the end of the day and truth be told they’re not expected to know everything that takes place in creating a game. To use that to guilt-trip gamers is foul. People criticize mobile phones too, but I bet 90% of these people don’t know the manufacturing process that goes behind the scene, and frankly they don’t care. Long story short, give the people good products and they’ll support you for years to come.
