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Cyberpunk 2077: Smart Delivery for Xbox Series X, release date and everything else we know

Buy it on the Xbox One, and you'll get to play it on the next-generation Xbox.

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Morgan Little
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9 min read

Now that's a Cyberpunk logo.

CD Projekt Red

In development for several years, Cyberpunk 2077 is almost here. The futuristic first-person RPG from developer CD Projekt Red looks like it'll give players an experience never before seen in video games

For more details on the game, scroll down. But for those fresh to the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, we have some introductory info. 

When is Cyberpunk 2077 coming out?

Cyberpunk 2077's new release date is Sept. 17. CD Projekt Red says it needs more time to fix and polish the game. 

"We are currently at a stage where the game is complete and playable, but there's still work to be done," the company said on Jan. 16. "We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation and postponing the launch will give us precious months we need to make the game perfect." 

Watch this: Xbox Series X gets updated specs and neat features

What platforms will Cyberpunk 2077 be on?

Given that Cyberpunk 2077's second trailer premiered during Microsoft's  E3 2018 press event, yes, it'll be coming to Xbox and PC. Preorders are available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions of the game. 

Not long after Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote a blog post about the Xbox Series X specs on Feb. 24, CD Projekt Red tweeted that Cyberpunk 2077 will make use of the new console's Smart Delivery feature. This allows owners of the Xbox One version of the game to do a free upgrade to the Xbox Series X version. 

Microsoft teamed up with CD Projekt Red to release a limited edition Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One X console and controller

Cyberpunk Xbox

Bring a little Cyberpunk home. 

Microsoft

There will be only 45,000 of the consoles available when it comes out in June 2020. Microsoft didn't provide a price for the limited edition Xbox. 

Available on Monday is the Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox wireless controller. Its unique design is inspired by one of the main characters in the game, Johnny Silverhand, who's voiced by Keanu Reeves. It's available in the Microsoft Store for $75 and works with Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 devices. 

Cyberpunk Xbox controller
Microsoft

As for the release of the Xbox Series X or PS5 version, CD Projekt Red still doesn't have a date planned. The company said in its latest earnings call that Cyberpunk 2077 will not be a launch title for the Xbox Series X or PS5, which are both set to launch holiday 2020. 

Why is there so much hype for Cyberpunk 2077?

For context, CD Projekt Red first released a stunning teaser trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 in January 2013. Since then, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were released; CD Projekt Red took the world by storm with The Witcher 3 and its expansions; and Nintendo went from console laughingstock to the top of the world. Meanwhile, all fans were left with was that sole teaser.

While fans were left in the dark for years, CD Projekt Red was adamant that the game was still under development. Still, no screenshots, gameplay footage or demos surfaced in the five years following that first trailer. But as we now know, rumors circulating about the game finally making an appearance -- particularly after CD Projekt Red filed a new trademark for Cyberpunk 2077 prior to the conference -- ended up being true.

But after years of anticipation, the second trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 arrived during E3 2018. As warmly received as that trailer was, and as exhaustive as post-trailer interviews with developers were, a glaring omission remained. There was still no public gameplay showcase.

But at long last, that gameplay trailer arrived, and you can watch it right here:

CD Projekt Red topped their gameplay reveal by introducing the big star of the game, Keanu Reeves. The John Wick actor will play the role of Johnny Silverhand, a mainstay of the original Cyberpunk tabletop game. 

Johnny will be a prominent character in the game with the second-most lines of dialogue although according to Cyberpunk lore, he's been dead for some time. As seen in the initial reveal, Johnny Silverhand will be a holograph that will act as a guide for the main character. 

Another celebrity in the game's voice cast is Canadian musician Grimes. On a livestream Feb. 22, she talked about her character, a pop star named Lizzy Wizzy. A Reddit user transcribed what she said about her role although it could be considered as spoilers for the game. 

On May 5, Cyberpunk 2077 announced an event called Night City Wire, which will take place on June 11 -- meant to be the final day of E3 2020 before it was cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19.

What's up with the world of Cyberpunk 2077?

To understand Cyberpunk 2077, you first have to know Cyberpunk 2020. The latter was a beloved role-playing game from the late 1980s and early 1990s that incorporated many cyberpunk tropes. There are cybernetic enhancements, nefarious corporations, devious punk-rock hackers, neo-noir aesthetics, freaky future drugs and trench coats. So many trench coats.

The US sits at the mercy of megacorporations after the world basically goes to hell. These megacorps become fiefdoms with their own areas of interest and secret plots to gain dominion over the others. Within that combative environment rests California's Night City, where players play out their adventures as corporate raiders, rebel rock-and-roll stars, street doctors or plain old cyborg assassins. 

Cyberpunk 2077 will pick up the series 50-plus years later with players taking the control of a character called V. CD Projekt Red partnered with Dark Horse Comics for the release of a companion lore book called The World of Cyberpunk 2077. The book will release on April 21, 2020. 

A preorder image of the book has a map of Night City and provides the first glimpse of its size.

Cyberpunk Map

The Night City commute is going to be a doozy. 

Amazon

What kind of game is Cyberpunk 2077?

After The Witcher trilogy, and the huge graphical and game design improvements made with each entry, it's safe to say CD Projekt Red has established itself as an RPG titan. So it's no surprise Cyberpunk 2077 is promised to be an RPG rife with player choice, intricate interactions with non-player characters and the world that will have an impact on the story, and in-depth character customization. 

It's not just your gender or hair color you can tweak, you'll be given options to define your character's backstory, including childhood events, which will impact the way you experience the game later on.

cyberpunk-2077-character-creation
CNET screenshot

What may come as a surprise to some fans is Cyberpunk 2077's perspective. Unlike The Witcher 3, which was a third-person RPG, Cyberpunk 2077 will be a first-person RPG.

As you can see in the gameplay demo, elements of combat, loot and world traversal are reminiscent of first-person RPGs like Deus Ex and Fallout, complete with slow-mo shooting, branching dialog options, scanning to identify enemy weaknesses and characteristics and even a hacking system that allows players to explore entire networks after jacking into individuals connected to said network.

cyberpunk-2077-hacking

It wouldn't be cyberpunk without hacking.

CNET screenshot

Transportation can be handled on-foot, where players have the potential for double-jumping and other mobility enhancements, or within vehicles that range between motorcycles to cars, which can be driven in first- or third-person. Cars and motorcycles can be stored within a garage, allowing players to create their own collection of vehicles. Each will also have a car radio that will play music similar to the Grand Theft Auto games. 

That traversal through the open-world can lead to random encounters with gangs or megacorporations that present sudden combat scenarios, as we saw in the demo when a trip to an objective was interrupted by a car chase and shootout.

Combat features gunplay and melee options, with an array of expected (pistols, shotguns) weaponry intermixed with futuristic rifles and robotic blades built into your cybernetic body, should you choose to install them. That kind of customization is tied not only to initial character creation, where initial stats can be allocated to determine what your character is best suited for, but to augments and boosts than can be equipped or obtained within the world. Should you choose, those augmentations can focus on non-combat features, giving you to potential to talk or persuade your way out of a tricky situation or past a combat scenario.

When using a gun or other weapons, V will gain proficiency with them. Higher proficiency in a weapon not only increases the accuracy and reload speed of a weapon, for example, but it will also change V's animation when using said weapon to show the expertise with it. 

For those who want a more stealthy attack, V will have nanowires at his disposal. These are a set of strings attached to the writers that can be used to strangle people silently. Players who focus on hacking can also use the nanowires as a long-distance cable to hack into systems and even upload malware into enemies to make them destroy themselves. 

But violence isn't the only way. CD Projekt Red said there will be a way to complete the game and questions without killing a single person

There will be a Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer mode, but CD Projekt Red has provided little details on it. What is known is the game's multiplayer is being developed alongside the single-player campaign and won't release until 2021. 

What did we see of Cyberpunk 2077 at Gamescom 2018?

Nice to meet you, Night City.

During the 50-minute briefing in a cinema room at Gamescom, we were shown a part of the game that involves the protagonist 'V' (in this case, a female character) interacting with some key characters in the game. V's first task we saw was to find a kidnapped girl, being held by some bad guys, hellbent on making life difficult for V. What ensued was a gun battle with a variety of futuristic weapons, with V using buffs (administered using what looked like an asthma inhaler) that slowed downtime to help V get her shots in. 

Once the girl was found, V found a rogue chip in a slot in the girl's head which was apparently jamming the tracking signal. Chip removed, the girl was located by another team and helicoptered to safety. It was an intense bit of action and it looked gorgeous. The guns were augmented -- one could shoot through walls while another is able to bounce bullets off walls, letting you kill around corners -- and there's an awesome katana that also creates a bullet shield.

Following the rad shoot out we saw how V gets her biomechanical upgrades. V journeyed to what looked like a grimy back street surgery, where she sat in a "doctor's" chair and we saw some of the upgrade options available. In particular, there was a new eye upgrade that allowed for zooming and scanning. Installing it was not a pretty process. A large claw crept towards our face (bear in mind the game is in first person) and got closer and closer to our eye. Then, out it popped. Our vision suddenly transferred to a new eye sitting on a nearby table which was then inserted back into our waiting head. It was a touch nauseating, although that could have been the promotional beers we had beforehand.

As the demo progressed, we saw V meet with an angry female character who gave V money to buy a piece of military equipment from a gang (the backstory to this whole setup eluded us at the time). As it turned out, the money was held on a computer chip that we were told in advance was infected with a virus of some kind. The Cyberpunk team giving the demo used this to highlight a key element of gameplay -- the decisions you'll make on different missions.

Cyberpunk 2077 dialog

Decisions, decisions.

CNET screenshot

When you eventually meet the gang to buy a required robot, you're given multiple options, including giving the money and saying nothing about the virus, explaining the potential virus, or just shooting everyone in sight. The game is apparently full of these decisions, which will result in different experiences and different storylines as the game progresses. Apart from making the game feel more immersive, this will also help give it great replay value, as you can go back and make different choices on a fresh play-through.

The graphics were, of course, stunning, and indeed it's been debated by some whether the graphics shown in screenshots so far are beyond what current generation platforms can achieve. 

While stipulating that the demo is drawn from a work-in-progress build, the hardware that its running on is not specified. It's possible that Cyberpunk 2077 could follow in Grand Theft Auto 5's footsteps and have both current and next-gen versions shortly after launch.

Where can I check out more rumors and speculation?

What, you don't want to stay here forever? The r/CyberpunkGame subreddit has been a fantastic gateway into the Cyberpunk fandom, and they've been having a ton of fun with all of CD Projekt Red's teasers and trailers.

cyberpunk-2077-subreddit

Cyberpunks of the world, unite and take over.

CD Projekt Red

As you can expect, the community has been comparing Cyberpunk 2077 to earlier CD Projekt Red games like The Witcher 3.

And there's been an interesting back-and-forth between fans about whether the second trailer's daytime setting is too far removed from the dark and rainy ambiance that typically accompanies the cyberpunk genre (that first trailer included!)

But, as mentioned earlier, the subreddit's key contribution to the E3 firestorm so far has been its decoding of the trailer's additional messages directly from CD Projekt Red. And if the community's track record is any indicator, there will be plenty more decoding, unraveling and exposing to come.

Originally published June 8, 2018, and updated as new info becomes available.