Cyberpunk 2077: Can patch 1.5 redeem CDPR's lost trust?

Cyberpunk 2077’s patch 1.5 is slated to release in the first three months of 2022. There have been some unconfirmed leaks about the content in patch 1.5 recently, which has again brought a question into the conversation - can CDPR regain the trust that they lost with Cyberpunk 2077?

The game was released on December 10, 2020. After the disastrous launch, especially on the previous generation consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) and the title's eventual removal of the game from the PlayStation Store, CDPR has done a bit of damage control by providing hotfixes and some small content updates through 2021.

However, based on widespread sentiment among gamers, these small updates are but a futile attempt by CDPR to regain their lost trust, after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s colossal success. While bugs and glitches were significant issues that detract from the Cyberpunk 2077 experience, they were not the only problems that sank the game.

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Patch 1.5 might be the final chance for CDPR to emend Cyberpunk 2077's legacy

CDPR’s marketing about Cyberpunk 2077 included many storylines like police car chases, safe houses, and destructible environments, which were simply not present in the launched product.

What was hyped out to be the single greatest RPG of all time turned out to be a run-of-the-mill action-adventure title with little substance, reportedly due to incomplete development, mismanagement, and deliberate false marketing.

The famous apology video by CDPR essentially boils down to a copout from all these promises as they only seemed to recognize the bugs and glitches present in the launched product, and not the severe underdelivering of, what now seems to be, a chain of grand promises. Resultingly, the chances of CDPR pulling off a Hello Games redemption arc are pretty slim.

CDPR got its last major patch, which was 1.3, in August 2021. With the upcoming patch 1.5, CDPR has reportedly been attempting to soft relaunch the game with sizable new content and polish.

But again, with CDPR’s track record of adding hairstyles and clothing to games and terming them as free DLCs, it remains to be seen how much CDPR is eager to win back their loss of rapport among gamers.

Even paid expansion packs like what they did with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the form of Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine can go a long way in that regard.

Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.5 is slated for release between January and March 2022.