It's been over a year since the release of CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, a game initially hyped up to be one of the biggest open world RPGs of all time that was ultimately met with major controversy upon its release, with the console versions famously lambasted for technical issues and under delivering on expectations set by the publisher. Despite this, CD Projekt Red has committed to improving the game's performance on consoles and with leaks indicating that the next-generation version of Cyberpunk 2077 could be releasing later today.
Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced in 2012, where it was revealed to be a video game adaptation of Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk 2020 board game from The Witcher video game developer CD Projekt Red. While the game was met with a lot of buzz at its announcement, major hype for its release did not come until the huge success of CD Projekt's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015, which has often been credited with being one of the greatest RPGs of all time. This, along with a huge marketing campaign, put major expectations on Cyberpunk 2077 which led to many delays up until the end of 2020, when the game released in an infamously unpolished state to the point that Sony pulled it from the PlayStation Store shortly after its release.
A next-generation PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S release of Cyberpunk 2077 was promised by CD Projekt Red before the initial release of the game, with the developer taking extra time to ensure that the game would take advantage of the unique hardware capabilities of the consoles. This next-generation version appears to be releasing later today, as many leaks including an early post from an official Xbox account appear to indicate.
The official Xbox NL Twitter account posted today claiming that Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen update is available now with a free-trial, posting an image that also indicates that the Xbox One (and likely PlayStation 4) version of the game has been updated to version 1.5. This comes after many Xbox users reported an "Optimized for Xbox Series X/S" badge appearing on the game's icon on Xbox Series X and S consoles yesterday, and CD Projekt Red's announcement of a Cyberpunk themed live stream arriving today.
It appears that after a long wait, CD Projekt Red is preparing to stealth release Cyberpunk 2077's PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions today, which seems like a somewhat bizarre way to relaunch what was at one point one of the most anticipated video games of all time. Regardless, next-gen console owners should be on the lookout for a free patch or the game's free trial later today.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version is slated to release today.