CD Projekt RED Has Created A Cyberpunk 2077 Update Workaround Just For The Steam Modders

CD Projekt RED served notice this week that Cyberpunk 2077 is getting yet another incredible update. By adding things like extensive car customization, the studio is continuing to do right by the fans that expected everything from the start.

But CD Projekt RED also knows that some fans may not quite be ready for that update. And so, they have a new message for just those fans, as they shared this statement on Twitter:

“We’re excited to deliver the newest Update 2.2 to you, and we hope you’ll love it!

However, we also know that you love playing #Cyberpunk2077 with mods, which is why we decided to temporarily enable, until end of January, a Beta branch of the game on Steam, letting you revert to “2_13_old” while modders work on updating their content to the newest version of the game. You can also revert to older versions of the game on GOG.

Please keep in mind that only the latest version of the game is fully supported as it contains all the latest improvements, fixes and changes. If you encountered any issues on an older version of the game, make sure to update it first.”

As CD Projekt RED has pointed out, since they actually run GOG, they can enable things like reverting to older versions of their game in the system. Since Valve’s bigger and more popular storefront happens to not have that feature, they went above and beyond to make it available for Steam players too.

CD Projekt RED could have used this as leverage, to convince gamers to move to GOG. While they do throw some shade Valve’s way, they certainly did good by their players on Steam.

And one could see why CD Projekt RED thought it was important that players got to keep playing with mods. It’s certainly true that mods originally helped the studio keep interest in the game, when the earliest mods literally made fixes that they weren’t able to deploy yet.

But now, mods are at a point where they’re exploring things that CD Projekt RED didn’t even intend or think about. Last week, we reported on a mod that deliberately lowers framerate and narrows the viewpoint to a specific FOV, in the service of making Cyberpunk 2077 look like real bodycam footage.  

That mod is only available on Patreon, and CD Projekt RED’s update could have affected the ability of the developers of that mod to make money from their hard work.

Once again, CD Projekt RED did not have to do this. One could argue the modder is just leapfrogging off of their work. But CD Projekt RED’s choice is good for the fans, the players, even the modders. It’s really hard to dislike Poland’s favorite studio when they do things like this.