Cyberpunk creator expects next-gen version

The original creator of Cyberpunk, Mike Pondsmith says he expects Cyberpunk 2077 to eventually release for next-gen consoles such as Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5.

Speaking to VGC at E3, the writer and designer – who is assisting with the development of CD Projekt Red’s game – said that he feels the game’s release on current-gen consoles is important as fans won’t want to wait any longer.

In a separate interview, the game’s UI coordinator Alvin Liu said he thinks the studio will be “very fair” with whatever it decides to do in regards to a potential next-gen version.

“Frankly, nobody wants to wait to see this game coming on new systems,” Pondsmith said. “But to be honest, [CD Projekt Red] will upgrade the path. It’s already got elements probably built into it. I’ve not seen the code, but my assumption is that there are elements that can move forward to the next versions.”

The designer pointed to his previous experience working at Microsoft on the original Xbox and claimed it’s likely next-gen dev kits have been widely distributed to game studios.

“Knowing what I know about system development, [Sony and Xbox] probably have dev kits out already. I know that there are dev kits for Scarlett around now… when I worked at Xbox there was a year [in advance] of original Xbox dev kits. I still have one sitting in my garage!

“So yeah, there are people already working on [new consoles] so most likely what will happen is they’ll look at how they’ll upgrade within that.”

CD Projekt’s Liu told VGC that the dev team’s current focus is on delivering the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and said it will assess next-gen in the future.

“We’re focusing on delivering a really good experience on current-gen consoles. When the next generation happens we’ll assess and figure out the best way forward,” he said.

“I would say that we are not a greedy company, so fans should expect a very fair offering with whatever we decided to do [with next-gen]. Currently we’re expecting to nail our current-gen productions.”

CD Projekt has hinted at a next-gen port for Cyberpunk 2077 in the past. CEO Adam Kiciński told investors in March that “if there’s an opportunity for us to launch Cyberpunk for another generation, we would want to do this probably.”