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.

CD Projekt Red has announced that it is partnering with Canadian studio Digital Scapes, "creating and optimising technological solutions for use in the development of Cyberpunk 2077". No details on what brought about the long-term partnership, but looking at the studio's history it may be directly linked to possible multiplayer or online functionality coming to Cyberpunk 2077.

For those only interested in the single-player aspect of the game, there's no need to worry because CD Projekt Red has previously stated that it is focusing on delivering a single-player only experience at launch. So, if this partnership is to flesh out any online or multiplayer components coming to the game - we probably won't hear about it until after launch.

“Cyberpunk 2077 is our most ambitious project to date and we work hard every day to make it a creative and technological achievement. The Digital Scapes team brings aboard a lot of talent, experience and technical knowledge, and I’m very confident our long-term cooperation will add plenty to the game,” says Michał Nowakowski, SVP Business Development, CD PROJEKT RED.

“We are both excited and honoured to work with CD PROJEKT RED. Their incredibly creative and accomplished team of developers have been pushing narrative-driven, role-playing games to unprecedented levels. We look forward to helping them create the very best video games on the planet,” said Marcin Chady, Studio Head, Digital Scapes.

The studio's PvP invasion mode for Dying Light played to the strengths of that particular game, and with Digital Scapes featuring ex-BioWare and ex-Relic talent - this collaboration could lead to some exciting Cyberpunk 2077 developments.

With limited prints available, signed by CD Projekt Red concept artist Bernard Kowalczuk, showcasing three themes - Doing Business, Street Life, and Trauma Team. Each piece naturally looks incredible, so if you're looking for a daily reminder of just how awesome Cyberpunk 2077 looks then it doesn't get much better than this.

With pricing starting from $105 (excluding shipping) and ramping up depending on the frame choice. The collection is available via Cook & Becker, and each piece looks incredible.




Yeah, you can be sure we're currently deciding on which one to get for our office.

And sure both the Core i7-8700K CPU and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU represent the upper-levels of current PC hardware - it's impressive to find out that the amazing 50-minute Cyberpunk 2077 demo from both Gamescom and E3 ran on an actual gaming rig. And that CD Projekt Red have been optimising the game for PC, PS4, and Xbox One from the very beginning.

So, all the talk of how what we see is still early and subject to change feels a little modest on CDPR's part. According to the developer the entirety of Cyberpunk 2077 is playable right now from start to finish - which leads us to believe that a late-2019 release date seems likely.

And hey, just knowing that the following wasn't running on a super-computer makes it all the more impressive.

So one half of my prediction elsewhere came true. CD Projekt RED has finally given the public what we industry people have managed to go gah-gah over since E3, by letting loose the near 50-minute in-game gameplay demo that was previously just a behind-closed-doors session.

Get some popcorn, moisturiser, wipes and a comfy chair, because you're world is about to be seriously blown.

Here's what game director Adam Badowski had to say about sharing this amazing piece of gameply footage:

“What we’re releasing today was recorded from a game deep in development.” — says Adam Badowski, Cyberpunk 2077 Game Director and CD PROJEKT RED Head of Studio. “Since many of the assets and mechanics in the current version of Cyberpunk 2077 are most likely to be modified, we initially decided to show this gameplay only to media. Elements like gunplay (both in terms of visuals and how RPG stats influence it), netrunning, car physics, or the game’s UI — everything’s pretty much still in the playtest phase and we felt uneasy about publicly committing to any particular design. Animation glitches, work-in-progress character facial expressions, early versions of locations — all this made us hesitant to release what you’re about to see.”

“However, we are also well aware that many of you want to see what the media saw.” — adds Badowski. “Although this is probably not the same game you’ll see on your screen when we launch, we still decided to share this 48-minute video with you. This is how Cyberpunk 2077 looks today. Let us know what you think!”

Now, enough reading -- get to watching and share your thoughts in the Comments below.

"DATA TRANSMISSION IN PROGRESS_" but we've got no clue what it means. Because all it seems to be, taken at face value, is an endless stream of code of some sort. If only we had that dude from The Matrix, he'd be able to tell us what it all meant. Or at the very least let us know that if it's in reference to a new Cyberpunk 2007 trailer - how many blondes and brunettes are featured.

Watch live video from CD PROJEKT RED on www.twitch.tv

More as it breaks - in the meantime be sure to check out our most recent feature written after witnessing the brilliant Gamescom demonstration. Or the following cool bit of concept art.

At Gamescom we took in the behind-closed-doors 50-odd minute live gameplay demo of Cyberpunk 2077. A game that already lives in a mythical stratosphere of "should this kind of game even exist?", and while it was largely the same as E3's demo, enough was different for us to look at it from a different angle.

And then ask: "Is this the legit Second Coming of gaming?" -- Here's a snippet of our *kind of* answer:

To say the game is multi-layered is almost an understatement. It’s a dense, multi-faceted experience that almost transcends the concept of a ‘videogame’, despite the studio steadfastly referring to it as a traditional open-world action-RPG. And despite it being based on a Pen & Paper series, what they’ve done here from both a visual and life-systems perspective is beyond next-level. And it's because of the presentation, and how complete it presents that we’re getting concerned about the minor things above -- the suggestions of world interactivity, its everlong reaction to you, and how branching and dynamic it all gets sort of seems, well, impossible.

Click here for our in-depth look at our second viewing of Cyberpunk 2077.

"Screenshots! What is this the late 1990s?" Sure, that's a valid response but this is CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 we're talking about - so we'll take what we can get. And even though a brand new Gamescom trailer would have been awesome, a fresh batch of screenshots showcasing the incredible look of Cyberpunk 2077's world will just have to do.

Apparently the guy with the beefy build and fancy futuristic hairdo is Jackie Welles, an assassin and your sidekick. Cyberpunk 2077 will offer players the option to play as either male or female and shape their history before diving into the adventure.






Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't have a release date but has been confirmed for both PC as well as current-gen consoles the PS4 and Xbox One.

Say what now? Yeah, during the behind close doors hands-on preview of Cyberpunk 2077 a few Australians got concerned about the future of the game thanks to its depiction of drug use. And how it can offer power-ups or improved abilities. Full frontal nudity aside, the Australian ratings board has a real problem with drugs, which most likely led to the recent ban/classification refusal of We Happy Few.

Responding to the query, as posed by Game Informer, CD Projekt Red quest designer Patrick Mills notes that the team are well aware of problems the game's content might pose to some markets.

"We're aware of [the issue], and we want to ship to as many people as we can," he said.

"We've got a really great localization department, we've previously shipped Witcher 3 to markets that a lot of people told us we weren't going to be able to ship in," Mills told us. "So I'm confident we'll be able to handle it."

Good news but also confirmation that CD Projekt RED may censor or cut certain parts of the game for certain markets. Namely, Australia. Now, as the We Happy Few issue shows - context doesn't factor into the decision. Any form of drug use with the outcome being positive for the player is a straight up no-no.

Because apparently it's a competition now. In a very stylish move, CD Projekt RED "hacked" the Xbox E3 briefing to debut the first in-game cinematic look at its followup to The Witcher 3 - Cyberpunk 2077. Set in America, and in the future, it looks, well, even better than we could possibly imagine.

So yeah, watch it. Or re-watch it. And then once more.



Everything from the level of detail to the art direction is simply peerless - CD Projekt RED are without a doubt one of the most impressive development studios in the world.

The following hidden letter was found in the trailer.

It's been over 2077 days since we announced our plan to develop Cyberpunk 2077. We released a CGI trailer, gave some interviews and... went dark. Normal procedure for these kinds of things - you announce a game and then shut up, roll up your sleeves, and go to work. We wanted to give you The Witcher 3 and both expansions first, which is why this period of staying silent was longer than we planned. Sorry for that.

As soon as we concluded work on Blood and Wine, we were able to go on full speed ahead with CP2077's pre-production. But we chose to remain silent. Why? At some point, we made a decision to resume talking about the game only when we have something to show. Something meaningful and substantial. This is because we do realise you've been (im)patiently waiting for a very long time, and we wouldn't like anyone to feel that we're taking this for granted. On the contrary - it gives us a lot of extra motivation. The hype is real, so the sweat and tears need to be real too :).

But to the point. Today is the day. If you're seeing this, it means you saw the trailer our vision of Cyberpunk, an alternative version of the future where America is in pieces. Megacorporations [unreadable] civilised life, and gangs rule the rest. And, while this world is full of adrenaline, don't let the car chases and guns mislead you. Cyberpunk 2077 is a true single-player story adventure RPG. You'll be able to create your own character and... well, you'll get to know the rest from what we show at our booth at E3. Be on the lookout for the previews!

Before we finish, you probably have some questions.

1. When? When we told you we would only release the game when it's ready, we meant it. We're definitely much, much closer to a release date than when we were back then :), but it's still not the time to confirm anything, so patience is still required. Quality is the only thing that drives us - it's the beauty of being an independent studio and your own publisher.

2. How big? Seriously big, but... to be honest, we have no bloody clue [unreadable] you can expect. And we promise we'll do this before we start talking about any pre-orders or ask anything of you.

3. Free DLC/Expansions/DRM? Expect nothing less than you got with The Witcher 3.
AS for DRM, CP2077 will be 100% DRM-free on PC.

4. Microtransactions? In a single-player role-playing game? Are you nuts?

Once again, thank you for your patience.

Yours,

CD Projekt Red Team.

With the Blood and Wine expansion for The Witcher 3 releasing over two years ago, Cyberpunk 2077 is definitely well into development. Still, a 2019 release window would have been nice. We'll be bringing you more exciting Cyberpunk news during the week so stay tuned.