With Cyberpunk 2077 only days away, players are starting to prepare to throw hundreds of hours into CD Projekt Red's newest open-world title. However, while some fans are bulking up their gaming rigs to get an RTX 3090 and run at 4K 60FPS, others are preparing for a different way to interact with the game on their own terms.
A team of modders who developed an open-source tool for The Witcher 3 is preparing to get the modding community running as soon as Cyberpunk 2077 becomes playable. One of these modders, who goes by Traderain online, has announced that the tools original creators are currently working with the rest of the community and welcomes input from CD Projekt Red as well.
The tool itself, called WolvenKit, is currently available as a modding tool for The Witcher 3, giving fans the chance to really open up the hood on the game and start adding things that would have been outside of the original scope of CD Projekt Red. It is now being prepared to work on Cyberpunk 2077, which won't have mod support when it releases on December 10th. Thankfully, if WolvenKit is able to get up and running in time for the game's release, then the talented pool of programmers and designers that sink their time into this type of modding can get to work quickly.
CD Projekt Red has been supportive of the modding community, although, there is no word whether or not the developer has had any contact with anyone currently working on WolvenKit. For now, the open-source tool is a completely fan developed project, possibly using Cyberpunk 2077's pre-load data to make the necessary tweaks to be compatible with the new game. Whether or not it will be ready in time for the release is also up in the air, but that doesn't mean that modders aren't likely already working on their own updates to the game.
A strong modding community for a game can be a huge part of what keeps any title influential and relevant beyond its initial release. Even the five-year-old Witcher 3 still receives mods from community members looking to add licensed material that CD Projekt Red can't put in, or add quality of life updates that the developer didn't include. So, getting the community started on the right foot for Cyberpunk 2077 is both good for the modders and players, but will also be beneficial to the game itself.
Cyberpunk 2077 is set to release on December 10th, for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: CD Projekt Red Forums