GameStop Labels Cyberpunk 2077 As Defective, Accepts Returns

When it rains, it pours, even in the dystopian Night City. Especially in the dystopian Night City. Almost like this entire year, CD Projekt RED's most ambitious game so far has been nothing short of a complete train wreck, forcing even Sony to pull out its digital stocks of the game from its PlayStation Store. Some retailers are following suit but GameStop's reported memo feels almost like icing on the cake, accepting returns of physical copies of the game and practically considering the product defective.

Although GameStop's reputation hasn't exactly been at its highest this year, there are some moments when it does something right once in a while. It hasn't yet been officially confirmed but an internal memo acquired by Kotaku details the way employees should handle requests for refunds and returns of the highly controversial game.

GameStop's regular return policy is pretty strict on what can be accepted and what can't. Products, including game boxes, have to be unopened and the product has to be returned within 30 days of purchase. Given Cyberpunk 2077 only launched last week, that last bit is pretty much a given.

The memo, however, indicates that employees can accept even opened PS4 and Xbox One boxes of the game. It goes further by instructing staff to slap a "Defective" label on the product before shipping it back to the company's warehouse. For some very disappointed players, this is the most accurate description of the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 has quickly turned into this year's biggest gaming fiasco, despite the title working relatively well on PCs. The developers have promised two more critical fixes in January and February next year, perhaps a bit too late to salvage the game's reputation. Some have even begun wondering if CD Projekt RED itself will be able to recover from this disaster.