We’ve heard murmurs suggesting that CD Projekt RED will showcase Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 2018. And it did. The first new trailer since the reveal teaser 2077 days ago debuted on the Xbox media showcase.
If you’ve missed, here’s the trailer.
The trailer is not indicative of the gameplay, it’s more of a tone piece that shows the world. It’s cyberpunk alright, despite the trailer mostly depicting the location of Night City in bright daylight, but very aggressive cybernetics, punk aesthetics and ultraviolence were all depicted, as you would expect.
After the reveal trailer, fans over on Reddit managed to find a secret message by CD Projekt RED hidden during the “hacking” gimmick before the trailer starts proper during the on-stage reveal, revealing an honest message by the developers on why they are taking their sweet time with this game (Cyberpunk was announced 5 years ago in 2013) and confirmed some game details, such as the protagonist you control, V, will be customisable. They also confirmed to have no microtransactions, with the answer: “In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
Here’s the full transcript:
“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 get 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 full speed ahead with CP2077’s pre-production. But we chose to remain silent. Why? At some point we made the decisions to resume talking about the game when we have something to show. Something meaningful and substantial. This is because we do realize you’ve been impatiently 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 for Cyberpunk, an alternative version of the future where America is in pieces, megacorporations control all aspects of civilized 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-driven RPG. You’ll be able to create your own character and… well, you’ll get to know the rest of what show at our booth at E3. Be on the lookout for the previews!
Before we finish, you probably have some questions,
- When?
When we told you we would only release the game when it’s ready, we meant it. We’re definitely much closer to a release date than 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.
- How big?
Seriously big, but… to be honest, we have no bloody clue at this point in time. Once we put it all together, we will openly tell you what you can expect. And we promise we’ll do this before we start talking about pre-orders or ask anything of you.
- 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.
- Microtransactions?
In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?
Once again, thank you for your patience. If you have a minute, do visit cyberpunk.net and share your opinion (about anything) with us. We read everything you posted we treat it very seriously.
Yours,
CD PROJEKT RED Team”
No gameplay video is available publicly right now, but the many outlets that attended E3 2018 did saw a 50-minute demo being played behind closed doors. This revealed that the game is played in the first-person rather than third-person like The Witcher and had some fans not happy with this change in perspective. CD Projekt RED clarified the decision about the choice of first-person at the E3 Coliseum panel, citing that immersion was the key factor. In particular, the perspective allows players to see more of the crazy augmentations being used in this dystopian world.
Several media outlets such as IGN and Eurogamer also received similar lines of answers in regard to this.
On the topic of augmentations, to further hammer down the tone that anything on the body can be augmented, there will be full nudity. Speaking to Polygon, game director Adam Badowski said: “Nudity is important for us because of one reason.
“This is cyberpunk, so people augment their body. So the body is no longer sacrum [sacred]; it’s profanum [profane]. Because people modify everything, they are losing their connection to the body, to the meat. And that’s why we need to use the nudity in many situations.”
No release date is still set for Cyberpunk 2077, but it will be released for the PS4, PC and Xbox One.