I wasn't insisting that people were right to expect a gta. Certainly, I wasn't. That's the reason I enjoyed cyberpunk 2077 despite it's issues. But, CDPR fanboys did, a large part of the fanbase did. They expected a open world action - adventure RPG that would rival GTA. When you have fansboys like them spreading that CDPR is gonna deliver next gta, you are bound to set up as their competitor. I was aware of CDPR's track record, I was just expecting a good story driven game and I was satisfied, didn't blow my mind but still a good game.

Even if we ignore that the CP 2077 wasn't going to be a competitor to GTA, the game had insanely high expectations. The expectations sky-rocketed when Keanu reeves involvement in the game was revealed.

Even CDPR devs understood that meeting high expectations were impossible. When April 18 2020 announcement date announced, the devs thought that the management were insane to announce such an early date for the game.

For ex. Recently leslie benzies [Ex-R* North head], left R* in 2013 and started making his new game called everywhere and recently started showcasing the game. In every interview about the game, he insists that the game is not gta and vastly different from that. He understands that going against gta is tough task. Many fans who have made up their mind that this will be next gta, But him insisting this is not gta will certainly helps with the marketing for his game in the long run, because he is making a different type of open world. He doesn't want his game to be overhyped or compared to gta. CDPR didn't do any of this, They were riding the hype, the game was overhyped, most people were expecting a gta.

Even if they were wrong in expecting a gta, they were atleast right in expecting a quality product. Like it or not, Cyberpunk 2077 was broken on launch. I disagree on your point about quality between RDR 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, RDR 2 was running perfectly on the consoles it was advertised for, Sony didn't remove RDR 2 from their store for several months. It is the highest rated playstation 4 game. Unfortunately the same isn't true for Cyberpunk 2077, even CDPR themselves ignored the last gen version of the game to concentrate on present gen consoles. If you are gonna advertise a game for a platform make sure that it runs well on that platofrm. Like it or not, Cyberpunk 2077's launch was buggy, featuring technical issues such as poor stability/crashes, AI bugs in NPCs, and severe visual problems that made the game nearly unplayable. A lot of Cyberpunk 2077’s initial player base was understandably thrown off, and thus quickly gave up on the game after seeing the state it was in. You might love the game for what it is, but so many people do not share same opinion as you.

I mostly agree, But like I said. CDPR set themselves in a position where everyone considered them as next best AAA open world studio. Ris a good open world developer, might be the best in open world crime genre. But their greedy anti consumer choices drove away many people from gta and they wanted something as the next replacement for gta. Everybody considered CDPR as the industry darling before CP 2077 released. Even CDPR were riding the hype. They didn't put any effort in distinguishing themselves from gta or R. The founder of CDPR said that the quality of CP 2077 will match the quality of RDR 2. You might not care about what people thought think about a particular product or company,but if they pay 60 dollars for a video game, they are gonna expect that quality. The owners of both base ps 4's and Xbox didn't receive that quality. The game released at end of 2020, only fewer people owned next gen consoles at that time. So, The complaints from owners of base ps4's and xbox's would have been way more compared to other platforms.

Nobody did until CDPR set themselves as a competitor to GTA. CDPR fanboys were circlejerking that Cyberpunk will put down gta and cyberpunk will be the next gta and the next best open work game ever. One of the dumbest comments I saw from a CDPR fanboy before cyberpunk 2077 release was this "R* went from cars [GTA 5] to horses [RDR 2] and CDPR went from horses[Withcher 3] to cars[Cyberpunk 2077]". I wish this guy was joking but he wasn't. He used the mode of transport and timeline in which those games take as a measurement of quality of products. CDPR fanboys were hyping this shit up like the 2nd second coming of Jesus Christ and CDPR did nothing control the hype. They also said that Cyberpunk 2077 will aim to be as polished as RDR 2.

The marketing really was bad for this game. I liked the actual game. If it wasn't for it's marketing, I think game would have been well received even if we ignore the bugs.