Will the Console Versions of Cyberpunk 2077 Be Shown Before Release?
Cyberpunk 2077 recently went gold, a remarkable achievement from developer CD Projekt Red for a game that’s been in the works for nearly this entire console generation. It was announced just when preliminary work was getting underway in 2012, notably before the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One arrived. Despite its production length, its hasn’t felt quite that long thanks to how they’ve handled promotion. It’s also not like they didn’t release anything during the time, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt releasing in 2015 and its expansions coming shortly afterward. Still, this is a big deal, and there’s plenty of anticipation for it.
It’s just a shame the development studio had to break their promise to prevent developers from crunching in the lead-up to the game’s November 19th release date. And before anyone says “Well, they’re not forcing the developers to crunch,” know that this is a considerably more complicated issue. Peer pressure is a thing.
The crunch situation is its own separate post, despite the necessity for it to pop up in conversations surrounding the game for everyone to know and remember how these products are made. (It’s still often forgotten and put on a mental backburner despite press coverage of the practice increasing over the last decade.) For now, there are other questions I want to ask that answers aren’t being provided for: Will they ever show this game running on current-gen consoles? Will they feel gutsy enough to show it on base platforms?
This question could be applied to any AAA game that isn’t console-exclusive these days, as developers and publishers mainly focus on showcasing the PC versions. I can’t think of many recent games where publishers have actively promoted the console versions. The exceptions were when they’ve needed to showcase them at trade shows as part of marketing deals with the hardware manufacturer, but even the necessity of those started being phased out at trade shows — those, of course, just before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.
It’s not like Ubisoft, for instance, has shown off Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla running on consoles, as the press has been given preview codes for PC versions. But their games and engines have a habit of working well enough on current-gen consoles that there’s no big concern as to how they’ll perform. We’ll see if that nonchalance pans out over the next month, when the games release on all current non-Switch platforms.
CD Projekt Red, however, is a more special case due to their history of working with powerful PCs. It’s an understatement to merely say Cyberpunk 2077 is a looker, shown through the detailed character models, in-game world, and special effects. You can’t blame anyone for being a tad concerned about just how good it will shimmer and run on current-gen consoles, especially those with 2013-centric power. The Witcher 3 was a looker and ran okay on current-gen base consoles, though unsurprisingly performed better on the enhanced PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X systems. Yet, Cyberpunk has even stronger visuals. Given this, and how late-generation ports have a history of not being treated as well by certain developers, the concerns are expected.
Thus far, the game has only been demonstrated on powerful PCs, on recent promotional streams from the developer and recent press previews. My question is whether they’ll be brave enough to demonstrate it on consoles, even for only a few minutes, before it arrives in mid-November. If not, this will be left up to sites like Digital Foundry to analyze it, and other press outlets that aren’t currently being gutted with layoffs thanks to higher-ups wanting to secure profits during the pandemic-driven economic downturn.
There’s a little reason to think there may be no need for concern here. CD Projekt Red and Saber Interactive were able to get the Witcher 3 running adequately on Nintendo Switch. The system requirements for the game on PC also aren’t as demanding as initially suspected, though getting the game to run as well as it does in previews with nonetheless require a beefy computer. Another issue with Cyberpunk is just how many platforms it’s coming to, and how many system specs it will have to be adjusted for — which could soon be an issue for several games going forward.
Consider the dizzying array of systems games will have to run on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. That’s a lot, and it will soon be a lot for many developers and publishers to adjust to. There’s a reason why ports of last-gen console games released after next-gen consoles arrive tend to be of messier quality, and the question is how soon that could happen here. Games heavily geared toward working best with powerful rigs could suffer most, with Cyberpunk being a key example.
Time will just have to tell if they actually show Cyberpunk 2077 running on consoles before it arrives within a little more than five weeks. I’m not a betting man, but I personally wouldn’t risk putting money on them showing it, especially not the base console versions. Even if they don’t, there’s still a chance that it will turn out well.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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I guess we can hope that it will at least look as good as Witcher 3, and hopefully the gameplay is supposed to be good too!
Yup, that’s what I have my fingers crossed for. Otherwise, I might have to wait until I get a next-gen console.