In news most of us were *kind of* expecting, CD Projekt RED has delayed the release of the hotly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 by more than five months. Citing a requirement to spend more time playtesting and bug-fixing, the studio has moved release of the game to September 17.

As we know with projects of this magnitude, more time is actually a good thing and speaks to a commitment to polish (heh) the release by the devs. Here's what CDPR had to say on the matter:

We have important news regarding Cyberpunk 2077’s release date we’d like to share with you today. pic.twitter.com/aWdtR0grYV

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) January 16, 2020

<script></script>So, while it's disappointing we won't be walking through Night City in Q1 2020, more time means a better project.

Hopefully we'll have more pre-release info for you from an editorial perspective, soon.

As part of recent financial call, Michał Nowakowski of CD Projekt Red, answered a question relating to the possibility of Cyberpunk 2077 being released on additional platforms - including PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett. The answer wasn't an exact confirmation, but it's safe to assume that it's coming but probably not at launch.

With Cyberpunk 2077 still on track for a April 16, 2020 release - many are no doubt wondering if the game will find its way on next-gen hardware. Outside of backwards compatibility of course.

When it comes to next-gen consoles, I mean – our game is coming to the present-gen consoles, and this is what we have announced, and of course we do have insight into what’s around the corner; into what’s happening with PlayStation and Xbox, and we are watching it closely, and one may probably safely assume that at some point we may do something with next-gen, however we cannot really be very specific what that may be, when exactly that may be. I will only safely assume that it’s definitely not gonna be around the launch timeframe of these consoles, so I think that’s pretty much it.

CD Projekt's CEO Adam Kiciński added that with the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077, the game is already being developed with cutting-edge technology in mind and that a transition to a higher fidelity version shouldn't be too difficult.

At PAX Australia we had a candid discussion with John Mamais, the head of CD Projekt Red’s Krakow studio. To talk about all things Cyberpunk 2077. So much so that we've put split our chat into two parts - one focusing on graphics and tech, and the other the ambitious open-world design. Finishing up our discussion, we touched on the current state of the game and the looming April 2020 release date.

Where even though we've seen some rather polished and seemingly feature complete slices of gameplay, CD Projekt Red is still adding content into the game. In the sense that when testing the teams come across closed-off sections and missing elements all the time - which John referred to as 'blockers'.


“We're playing it all the time,” John explained. “But there are blockers all over the place, because stuff is still going into the game. And that can be technically challenging for us. It's like if we can't do that now, at this point, we’re fucked. Now's the time to start really testing it all.”

On that front, John reminded me that when it comes to development there's a lot that happens and comes together right at the very end. And that the current state of Cyberpunk 2077 is one that is still very much "in development".

That, said he wished the studio hadn't announce a release date.

“I wish it wasn't like that, and that we didn’t have to set a date," John tells us. "It's weird to have to set a date, but you have to start advertising and there's significant investment in marketing. So if you don't hit the date according to what your plan is, you're throwing away shitloads of money."

"We’re a publicly traded company now which changes things a little bit too," he adds when we brought up the original 'whenever it's ready' response the studio gave prior to the Cyberpunk 2077 release date announcement. "So you can't just say whenever it's ready. Maybe some companies can, maybe we can for the next game, do that and not have to worry about publicising what we’re doing. I don't think we're that giant or big a studio that we don't have to publicise or market the game. Maybe Rockstar can, they can announce something at the last minute and people will still buy shitloads of copies. We're still trying to get there.”

This article is sponsored by ASUS.

Recently we had the chance to sit down with John Mamais, the head of CD Projekt Red’s Krakow studio to talk about all things Cyberpunk 2077. Our discussion was lengthy and covered a bunch of topics we've decided to break it up - check out Part One. Here, we talk about open worlds, immersion, and how its scope compares to that of The Witcher 3's.

A snippet.

“We started working on the open world stuff in The Witcher 3 quite late in development,” John Mamais, studio head at CD Projekt Red’s Krakow studio admits. In many ways The Witcher III: Wild Hunt propelled the studio to superstar status among RPG fans. An immersive and huge open-world that pushed the cinematic possibilities of the genre forward with memorable stories, moments, and character development that fully realised the series’ epic fantasy ambition.

During its development, and as the size and scope of Geralt’s final adventure took form, the team at CD Projekt Red expanded and grew to accommodate its vision for the game. “We did as much as we could,” John continues. “Compared to The Witcher though, Cyberpunk’s open world is way fucking cooler.”

Click Here to Read 'Cyberpunk 2077 - CD Projekt Red on Creating an Immersive Open World RPG'

This article is sponsored by ASUS.

At PAX Australia we had the chance to sit down with John Mamais, the head of CD Projekt Red’s Krakow studio. So you know, we talked about all things Cyberpunk 2077. Our discussion was lengthy and covered a bunch of topics we've decided to break it up.

So, we'll bring you 'Part 2' so to speak, tomorrow. First, a preview.

As Cyberpunk 2077’s development commenced in full, and as the scope became clearer, the CDPR studio size now sits at around 500.

“We weren't smart enough to know how many people we needed,” John admits. “When we wrote the initial concept [for Cyberpunk 2077], we didn't know. So, we grew alongside the design as it was developing. And really, you don't know how many cinematic animators you’re going to need until you have a scope for the number of scenes you’re going to have in the game. We didn't have that in the beginning, we just knew we wanted to have cool cinematics and we knew that we were going to be at least as big as The Witcher 3. We ended up hiring a lot more people than what we needed for The Witcher because the fidelity and overall requirements of 2077 crept up on us.”

Cyberpunk 2077 - CD Projekt Red on Pushing Graphics Tech Forward and Building Night City

This article is sponsored by ASUS.

But, it won't be there at launch - with CD Projekt RED confirming that April 2020 is all about that single-player Cyberpunk 2077. The big news here though is the the developer has now confirmed that multiplayer has moved beyond the R&D stage - i.e. figuring out what/how it will work in the game - to now be actively in development. With CD Projekt RED hiring for it too.

Which could mean that whatever it is there's potential for it to be as fleshed out as something like GTA Online or Red Dead Online.

2/2 The plan for now is to deliver Cyberpunk 2077 in April, then follow up with DLCs (free!) and single player content, and — once we’re done — invite you for some multiplayer action.

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) September 4, 2019

As per the above Tweet, it sounds like whatever it might be won't be ready for a while - with 2020 set to get the full game at launch with a bunch of free DLC and story content to follow. Back to the whole GTA Online thing - imagine for a second that's what they're going for. Living in Night City, grouping up with people, going on missions, buying funky new outfits and vehicles. Very cool.

Cyberpunk 2077 is out April 16 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the news a fair bit lately, and while the latest deep-dive video gives us more juicy eyes on what to expect from the game, character creation and the decision to go all-in on the game's first-person perspective have emerged as the top talking points.

1/2 Achieving full immersion in an FPP game is extremely important and the decision made by the team to go 100% first person in @CyberpunkGame is something that will benefit it greatly from gameplay and story-telling perspectives.

— Marcin Momot (@Marcin360) September 2, 2019

<script></script>

2/2 That said, players will still be able to see their characters in the inventory screen, during driving sequences, in mirrors and, very occasionally, in some of the cut-scenes.

— Marcin Momot (@Marcin360) September 2, 2019

<script></script> PC Gamer has collated all the information around this, including highlighting that sex scenes will also be presented in first-person and that the only time you'll see any third-person view of yourself will be in reflections and while using vehicles, though your perspective in vehicles looks like player-choice as well.

Our very own interview with Lead Quest Designer, Paweł Sasko, hinted at such -- especially where cut-scenes are concerned.

“It's one of the things we’ve done with our scene system, and we’ve reworked it completely from the ground up. People we’re saying [that] our scene system [for The Witcher 3 was] one of the most advanced scene systems ever created, and frankly we [threw] it away and made a new one that is even better. We’ve just reworked it completely, and one of the reasons you will walk in the city and see all of those scenes happening all around you, and you go and talk to Placide, and Placide moves and talks to this woman and then to the vendor, and you move on and there are all these people around you. We can do all of that thanks to our scene system, and it’s really... it's all seamless, right, so it doesn't cut from one to another."

So there you have it, the game will be entirely a first-person experience as a means to sell you fully into the world and, honestly, we're not sure why a few people have their panties in a bunch over the decision.

And sure, another 50 minutes of unedited gameplay footage ala last year's exhilarating slice of Cyberpunk 2007 footage would be our preference but it's been a while since we've seen the game in motion. And this new 15 minute Deep Dive video showcases quite a bit when it comes to character customisation, player choice, and the fluid class system. Plus, more Keanu.

Check it out.



Following this CD Projekt RED has released an extended developer Q&A with Miles Tost (Senior Level Designer), Paweł Sasko (Lead Quest Designer), and Philipp Weber (Quest Design Coordinator) that you can watch here. Which goes even deeper into stuff like level design and playing the game as a Netrunner. Which, being given the option to hack into cyber-ed up enemies to mess with their software or even make augmentations explode, sounds like the way to go.

One cool aspect of the above gameplay stuff shown is that it was captured on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti - with ray-tracing features enabled.

As we close in ever-so-quickly to 2020, and the mouth-watering release of the year's most anticipated game in Cyberpunk 2077, developer CD Projekt RED recently dropped a stack of new screens as well as the latest track from rockers, SAMURAI, as portrayed by modern Swedish punk rock outfit, Refused.

And the only reason that headline exists, is because I missed it, being pretty damn sick over the weekend and early this week, causing Kosta to ramp up his usual output, which is always really high anyway, because he's a machine.

That, and he's not really into guitar riffs and rocking, or rolling. Any synth-related music from the game that emerges though, and I wouldn't even get a look in. But enough about me being sick.

Checkout the SAMURAI track embedded below, and then below that, enjoy a plethora of tasty screens highlighting the world and characters of Night City.

With multiple topics covered across a sprawling interview, we had a chance to speak with CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 lead quest designer, Paweł Sasko, around a number of topics. Touching on building a modern 'retrofuture' while maintaining faith to the IP's source material, through to the world, missions, characters, relationships and beyond, this massive interview feature has it all. If you're keen on Cyberpunk 2077, this is must-read material.

Paweł Sasko emphatically goes into detail around design and process, giving us an excellent overview of the growth the studio has enjoyed since the success of The Witcher 3 and how that has translated to development of Cyberpunk 2077. We also go into detail around what handing the reins to a studio like CD Projekt RED means to the legacy, and now growth, of Cyberpunk from its Pen & Paper origins.

Here's a snippet:

Importantly, however, the studio has maintained a sense of tone alongside what a retrofuture might look like, because the source material was ahead of its time, no retro pun intended. And Pondsmith is steadfast CDPR’s 57-year jump from 2020 and the “fourth corporate war”; its cumulative social, governmental, corporate and ‘street’ fallout, remains within his original vision, as he stated a number of years ago when he started working with the Polish-based developer.

“In Cyberpunk it’s not the technology, it’s the feel; getting that dark, gritty rain-wet street feeling,” he impassioned. “But at the same time getting that rock and roll ‘lost and desperate’ dangerous quality...

“People have technology but that wouldn’t fundamentally change the fact that there [is] a lot of treacherous, nasty behaviour… the street finds its uses for things.”

Last year’s reveal talked up Night City being voted the “worst place to live in America”, but emphasised that it’s a place of opportunity. And it’s here in this concept that “streets” and “retrofuture” coalesce. It’s easy to consider our current place in the world. Technology and communication are ubiquitous, but on a simplified lean. The retrofuture we look at now, was the future in the 80s. It’s kind of a fantastical irony of vision on multiple plains. Look, feel, use -- all of it is required to placate what we considered futuristic, and “back in the day” that was sort of easier to manifest from an ‘out there perspective’, I mean, our videos and broadcasts were captured on literal fucking tape.

Click here for our full Cyberpunk 2077 interview feature with CD Projekt RED's Paweł Sasko.

Swedish post-punk post-hardcore outfit, Refused, has been revealed as the "voice" of the game's "iconic chrome rock music band SAMURAI", who featured in the now famous Keanu reveal for Cyberpunk 2077 at this year's E3.

And trust me, this is a big deal.

Both Songs to fan the Flames of Discontent and the near-mythical The Shape of Punk to Come are regarded as transcendent moments and releases in the history of punk, rock and hardcore. The latter became so massive, that it effectively tore the band apart, yet also brought them back together a number of years later, because of its continued support and influence through myriad music circles and across numerous genres.

What's interesting about this collaboration is the band itself has always stood for anti-establishment and anti-corporation, so signing up to lend their creative selves to a game of this magnitude either speaks to a maturity within their four walls about commercialisation, or they see something in the role and within the game itself, as well as within CD Projekt RED, to join the project.

Cooperation with the acclaimed Swedish punk rock formation involves writing, recording, and producing an EP featuring the greatest hits of SAMURAI, with creative direction provided by CD PROJEKT RED’s composer team headed by Marcin Przybyłowicz. Tracks born from the partnership include ones both heavily inspired by the original source material, as well as original tracks created by the band exclusively for Cyberpunk 2077.

“I’m incredibly excited about having Refused on board for Cyberpunk 2077,” said Marcin Przybyłowicz, Music Director, CD PROJEKT RED. “I know for a fact there are a lot of fans of the band at the studio, including Piotr Adamczyk, one of the composers working on the game, who came to me with the idea for this collaboration. I’m very happy he did, because the massive riffs, powerful drums, and hard-hitting vocals the guys from Refused deliver as SAMURAI have blown me away,” added Przybyłowicz. “I can wholeheartedly say the punk factor of Cyberpunk 2077’s music is through the roof!”

“Like us, SAMURAI is a group of rebels, albeit in a different time and place,” said Dennis Lyxzén, Lead Vocalist of the band Refused. “Working together with CD PROJEKT RED, writing music and song lyrics for Cyberpunk’s chrome rock icon was fun, but also very different in the creative sense. It was an unexpected challenge that turned out to be right up our alley and really got us going. The songs turned out great and the game looks insane,” added Lyxzén.

You can already check out the track "Chippin' In" from the make believe EP on Spotify embedded below.

And it's pretty fucking good, I might add.

During a conference call with CD Projekt RED's top brass, president Adam Kicinski and vice-president Piotr Nielubowicz revealed that the ever-growing independent developer has a total of three projects on the burner set within the universe of Cyberpunk 2077, as well as an as yet unannounced title and continued investment in GWENT: The Witcher Card Game.

DSOG reported the comments, which has Kicinski stating that CD Projekt RED is "working on three Cyberpunk things – over the main game and over two more". Kicinski also revealed that each project is split over three different teams, which is consistent with the studio's recent governmental funding success and subsequent head count growth. VP, Nielubowicz also added that one of the three Cyberpunk games was a "big and innovative project", outside of the game we've been shown so far.

It's interesting to know that this is a triple-down on the new IP, and also good to know GWENT remains to be supported. However, all eyes and ears are now on what the mystery "unannounced" project will be, which is very much not set in The Witcher universe.

Whatever could it be?

In an in-depth interview yet to be unveiled in full with AusGamers, CD Projekt RED lead Cyberpunk 2077 quest designer, Paweł Sasko, enthusiastically explained how the game's "fluid class system" and its character "life maps" would ultimately create a unique gameplay and narrative experience player-to-player, based on how you've created you in-game avatar.

"Yeah that is an excellent question," Sasko remarked when we used a timely Keanu and The Matrix reference around "how deep does the [quest] rabbit hole go?" -- a question he thoroughly enjoyed. "In The Witcher 3 [and its expansions], we made a branching storyline in an open-world. [In Cyberpunk] we are also doing a branching storyline in another open-world, [but] we are adding branching gameplay to it.

"Depending on a player's choices; different classes -- thanks to our fluid class system -- we are able to actually make different decisions; different choices. And [with that] the player can play the whole thing in completely different ways. It's really amazing. And we're really using all the experience that we gathered throughout The Witcher 3, and even throughout The Witcher 2, to make Cyberpunk [the best we can] with all of our experience from those games [and their] expansions."

Even more enthusiastically, Sasko also revealed that a large majority of his quest and mission design team are veterans within the studio and worked on the aforementioned with him.

"[A lot of the team] have been there for a long time," he tells us. "And because most of the team stayed intact for all that time I am very grateful... to be with CD Projekt RED; to be with my team, and to build this together. There's lots of experience that we gathered together, and for me the level that we had in The Witcher 3, in our stories -- that's, like, level zero for me right now, like, 'this is what we expect from CD Projekt' kind of thing. But now [with Cyberpunk] it's time to take it to another level."

We'll share our in-depth conversation with Paweł very soon, so be sure to stay tuned.

Cyberpunk 2077 joined our AusGamers Top 10 Best of E3 list for 2019, and releases on PC, PS4 and Xbox One in April, 2020.

Traditionally an RPG got a lengthy campaign at launch with an expansion continuing the story released a year or so later. This was the norm long before we started using the terms DLC and micro-transactions. In an interview with Prima Games (yeah, the overly priced guides people) CD Projekt RED confirms that Cyberpunk 2077 will feature an extensive and complete campaign at launch - with traditional expansions to follow.

Ala The Witcher 3's excellent Blood & Wine expansion that presented a brand new story and fascinating land to explore. "We are talking about expansions in the future," Cyberpunk developer Alvin Liu tells Prima Games. "We want to make sure everything's complete, but we also want to build open worlds. I know when I was playing The Witcher 3 and I finished everything, I still want to know what everyone was up to. I think we're going to have opportunities like that as well for Cyberpunk 2077."

This is in reference to how the team at CD Projekt RED shifted post-launch support and content updates for the game from smaller pieces to the grand expansion, Blood & Wine, that resonated so strongly with fans. Alvin Liu is also quick to point out that the team is treating all post-launch stuff separate from the main game and isn't factoring that into the story it tells. "We're not withholding content, we're not withholding story for the future to try to, you know, monetize it or sell it in pieces or anything like that. You're going to get the whole, full value game here."

This is great news as we feel that large expansions and bits of story are the best way to continue adding to engaging open-world RPGs. From The Witcher 3 to what Bethesda did with Skyrim and the Dragonborn expansion.

Or part cyborg person. In a statement made to VG247, lead quest designer Pawel Sasko said, "in every quest, every side quest, minor quest, every street story, absolute, literally in every possible scenario, you don’t have to kill". Which, when you consider that Cyberpunk 2007 features a detailed and expansive class system, will offer up quite the level of freedom.


For example you can hack into someone and cause them to do self harm, disable them entirely, put them to sleep, or cause quite the violent end. No doubt, this bit of news will lead to many people attempting a "no kill" play-through when the game launches next year. And for those of us who prefer a bit of stealth or choosing who gets to live and die - this revelation has some definite Deus Ex vibes.

Yeah, just when we though we couldn't be more excited to play Cyberpunk 2077. Stay tuned to AusGamers as we'll be bringing you our own preview based on the new lengthy E3 2019 demo.

Taking the stage at the Xbox E3 2019 Showcase after a digital cameo in an electrifying new Cyberpunk 2077 cinematic trailer, Keanu Reeves was there to not only introduce the game but reveal the release date in style. April 16, 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Cyberpunk 2077 countdown begins!

In the following cinematic trailer we get to see a rather tense moment of the Cyberpunk 2077 story play out - in what looks like the default male character alongside a few key NPCs you meet along the way. Although pre-rendered, it looks to recreate moments from in-game, including the reveal of Johnny Silverhand - played by Keany Reeves.



According to the release Reeves not only provided his likeness but also recorded extensive full-body motion capture for the role.

Alongside the release date comes word of the expected Collector's Edition, which comes in a box modeled after one of Night City's buildings. Which will come packed with a 25 cm statue depicting the game’s protagonist, a steelbook case, a hardcover art book, and more.


Pre-orders are open now via the official site.

We'll have more Cyberpunk as E3 continues.

Not that we've had any sort of firm release date or window from CD Projekt RED concerning the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 - but according to Kotaku's Jason Schreir via Twitter the game will be out in the first half of 2020. According to his sources a 2019 release was the target but unrealistic based on the scope of the project.

Here's the post in full - which does follow on from the rather emphatic statement that Cyberpunk 2077 is "absolutely not coming out this year".

This has gotten a lot of Reddit attention so some clarity: I've heard from three sources that Cyberpunk was aiming for 2019, but belief around the studio was that it was an unrealistic target. I expect first half 2020 or maybe even an E3 announcement of 2019, then a delay to 2020 https://t.co/8QsOatEFfJ

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 31, 2019

A definite blow for fans expecting or hoping for the release to be late 2019, but there's no way that CD Projekt RED will release the game in an unfinished state. Pushing the release date back to 2020 for additional polish makes sense, but it also joins a big list of titles now rumoured for 2020. Including Sony's Ghosts of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II, and even the first part of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII remake. With both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One successors due for release late 2020 it'll definitely be strange to see such a strong line-up right before the release of new hardware.

You know you're in deep when you immediately and excitedly click on a link that's basically just wallpaper for your desktop. The game in question, CD Projekt RED's long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077. And the new wallpaper features what looks to be a re-design of the game's default male protagonist. Its vanilla Commander Shephard if you will.

As with Mass Effect, Cyberpunk 2077 will let you create your own character via a detailed creation tool - so odds are the figure depicted here won't be the V you end up controlling.


No real new information to glean here other than the redesign being a definite improvement, and V's arm looking all kinds of augmented. Head here to grab the new wallpaper, right-click "Set As", and then like us continue to count the days until we get a brand-new look at the game in a couple of weeks at E3.

In an absolute steal, Sony has come up trumps with new Cyberpunk 2077 details. Microsoft famously ended their 2018 E3 press conference with a Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, but it looks like CD Projekt RED has decided to play the field, with a new behind-the-scenes video detailing the game (in short form), from the PlayStation Blog.

And it's voiced by Geralt (or Doug Cockle, if you're a humanist), which makes it doubly cool. Talking about how to highlight the world in deeper form, making the baseline narrative exist in a parallel universe to that of the pen and paper game, the option to choose your gender and character instead of driving an established character, such as Geralt -- all of it is explored here. And while the video ends with an "when it's ready" release date, this video coupled with news the game will be at E3, and my own leanings over the past little bit since its reveal, suggests we'll be seeing the game in 2019.

Mark our words.

Watch the video embedded below.

After getting announced way back in 2012, and will full development commencing after the completion of The Witcher 3 - CD Projekt RED brought a lengthy behind-closed-doors demo of Cyberpunk 2077 to E3 last year. In addition to an amazing cinematic trailer. With confirmation that the game will be back at this year's show, there's a good chance a release date might drop alongside it.

Last year CD Projekt RED confirmed that the game was playable from beginning to finish, and with an impressive 48 minute gameplay demo already out there - if a late 2020 release was on the cards then it would make sense for the game to be a no-show this year. Also that timeline would put it in-line with the launch of the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles, and CD Projekt RED has gone on record to state that the game is playable on current hardware.

The demo itself apparently ran on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 hardware - at 1080p.

For those of you asking, yes, we will be at E3 this year.

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 28, 2019

Our money is on Cyberpunk 2077 being THE holiday game this year, much like Red Dead Redemption 2 was last year. With a potential early 2020 release as a fallback. Of course we may simply get an updated trailer or another gameplay demo, but as every bit of official Cyberpunk 2077 news has been fairly substantial - it's probably safe to start up the hype train. And countdown the days until we get a release date.

And re-watch the stunning demo for the 2077th time.