CD Projekt RED has detailed what they fixed in Cyberpunk 2077 from 8th generation to the Switch 2.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, CD Projekt RED engineer Tim Green explained what they couldn’t do on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One that they were able to now remedy on the Switch 2. Green said this:
“Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a tremendous amount of ongoing love as we’ve continued to improve the game. In bringing the Ultimate Edition to Nintendo Switch 2 we were able to build on top of that already solid base.
Development still had challenges, of course, as any development process does, but we’ve been careful in picking tradeoffs to not compromise the game’s vision.
We haven’t had to fight with fitting into memory, and the speed of the data storage has helped alleviate some of those early streaming problems. This has allowed us to focus our attention on improving other things, and we’re very happy with the result.”
Green also made it clear that he was referring to the problems with texture pop-in in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077. These are issues that date back all the way to 2020, when the game first launched as a cross-generation title for PlayStation and Xbox. At the time, users complained about textures taking a long time to load while they were playing, and of frequent frame drops.
To be fair to CD Projekt RED, Sony, and Microsoft, CDPR did manage to fix these issues and make the game playable on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as best as they can. So we should understand Green’s statement for what it is; they were frustrated with porting the game to those older consoles, and they’re happy that their experience is completely different with the Switch 2.
There’s been so much said about CD Projekt RED’s work on the Switch 2 already that you could almost be forgiven for thinking they’re the only ones who brought a third party game to the console. But for those who seek them out, we have seen that Sega, Capcom, FromSoftware and others sing praises for the new console as well.
This doesn’t seem like simple lip service because they’re looking forward to business success with Nintendo. This seems to be signs that we’re coming back to the era when there’s real parity between all three console companies, something that hasn’t been around since the 6th generation. (Funnily enough, Switch 2 is launching with games from Nintendo’s 6th generation console, the GameCube.)
If Satoru Iwata saw value in looking for new audiences for gamers, Shuntaro Furukawa has moved back to catering to the hardcore console audience, back to the way Nintendo was under Hiroshi Yamauchi. While some of this looks familiar, we are in somewhat uncharted territory moving forward for Nintendo and the industry as a whole.
