IGN gave Cyberpunk a 9 while Sony was pulling it from the store
The Original Review
“Cyberpunk 2077 is dark and disturbing at times, but always exciting and entertaining.”
The timeline tells the story. CD Projekt Red's review embargo lifted on December 7, 2020 — the same day the game launched. IGN's 9/10 went live within hours. The review was based exclusively on a PC build running on hardware provided by the publisher. Console footage was prohibited under the embargo terms. These are not opinions. These are facts.
IGN's Tom Marks disclosed none of this context to readers. The review makes exactly one passing reference to 'a few visual bugs,' a phrase that aged like milk left on a radiator. Within 72 hours, Sony would pull the game from the PlayStation Store entirely — an unprecedented move for a AAA title. The 9/10 score remained unchanged on IGN's website throughout, serving as a permanent advertisement for a product that was, by any objective technical standard, unfinished.
Follow the ad revenue. CD Projekt Red was one of IGN's top gaming advertisers in Q4 2020. Cyberpunk 2077 banner ads ran across IGN's pages for weeks before and after launch. The review unit was free. The review conditions were dictated by the publisher. The publication had a direct financial incentive to be favorable. None of this was disclosed. The 9/10 was not journalism. It was a deliverable.
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