The next generation Cyberpunk 2077 update will be released in the ‘second half’ of 2021

CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński appeared on a video today to apologize on behalf of the company and leadership team for the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Iwiński promises to regularly provide more updates alongside free content, including the next promised free content – the PS5 public upgrade And the Xbox Series X, which is now targeting “the second half of 2021,” CD Projekt has never revealed when a next-generation upgrade to Cyberpunk 2077 will be released, otherwise it will be released for free sometime in 2021. But now, Iwiński confirms that it is likely Players won’t see the update until the last half of the year.

As Iwiński says in the video, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed with PC in mind first and foremost. This was reflected in IGN’s review of Cyberpunk 2077 where the PC experience was relatively smooth but almost unplayable on the PS4 and Xbox One platforms.

Currently, console players, even those with PS5 and Xbox Series X systems, are playing a backward compatible version of the PS4 and Xbox One game.

Cyberpunk 2077’s performance issues on consoles are widespread, CDPR has opened an unprecedented refund policy, and companies like Sony have removed digital copies of Cyberpunk from the PlayStation Store. The release is also currently being investigated by CDPR by the Consumer Protection Agency.

Have you played Cyberpunk 2077?

YeahNo

Iwiński’s video, which is about five minutes in length, succinctly touched upon several questions about the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, including why there was a gap between the computer and console versions of Cyberpunk 2077, and how it handled revision copies.

Dear players,

Below you’ll find CD PROJEKT co-founder a personal explanation of what the days leading up to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 looked like, while sharing the studio’s view of what happened with the game on older generation consoles. pic.twitter.com/XjdCKizewq

Cyberpunk 2077 (CyberpunkGame) January 13, 2021

With regards to bringing the Cyberpunk 2077 to consoles, especially older ones, Iwiński says, “Things weren’t looking so difficult at first, while we knew the hardware game, in the end, time proved that we underestimated the mission.”

The main reason, he says, is the in-game broadcast system, which is “responsible for” feeding “the engine with what you see on the screen, in addition to the game mechanics.” Iwiński cites disk bandwidth performance on legacy systems as not being able to keep up with the city’s buzzy design.

Iwiński also says that his internal testing “didn’t show many problems” players faced and that every workday “saw significant improvements” in performance. But even then, Iwiński says the developers were working on improving the console version in order to patch the day 0 until launch. This explains the delay between the output of PC review codes and the console review copy on December 8th, according to Iwiński.

Starting in early 2021, CD Projekt will pay several corrections regularly throughout the year. The first update will be released “in the next 10 days” and a “more important update” will be released weeks later.

CDPR’s new roadmap. Source: CD Project

There are still plans for a free DLC release as with The Witcher 3, but it may not target “early 2021” as previously anticipated as CDPR has shifted its priority to “working on the most important fixes and updates” and DLC will follow after that.

CD Projekt Red has faced several hurdles since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020. The company is facing lawsuits over “misrepresenting” Cyberpunk 2077 as a product and had to deny rumors about its development problems. Despite these issues, Cyberpunk 2077 sold more than 13 million copies, despite refunds, and made a full refund for development and marketing costs.

Matt TM Kim is a reporter for IGN.