If you’ve been following the ongoing drama surrounding CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077, you’ve probably seen or at least seen references to a thread from an anonymous CDPR dev that claimed a number of things about the game. According to the studio itself, however, the leak is completely false.
The thread in question states that, among other things, dev morale is at an all time low and that Sony execs are breathing down the studio’s neck; that the original Johnny Silverhand was “heavily inspired by David Hayter’s Solid Snake from the first MGS and believe it or not, Cillian Murphy” but execs complied to an unspecified “outside need for star talent”; and that a number of features were on the cutting room floor like an underground area of Night City, two entire arcs, and several other events dropped due to “inside censorship.” The thread also expected major changes due to the game sometime in June to address a vast majority of the RPG’s problems.
The alleged anonymous dev further said that the game’s bumpy launch was akin to “a cold shower” to let the devs make the intended game without having execs breathing down the team’s neck to publish. “I believe it was due to miscommunication and leads not setting goals like they should. The game was jumbled together for 2019’s E3. The last dev comp before the scrap was 160Gb alone. There should be some whistleblowing in the coming weeks,” claimed the source.
With all this said, a reply on the game’s official forums, which comes from a directly flagged CDPR developer, was spectacularly blunt: “We usually do not comment on rumours, but this is simply not true.” Of course, whether you believe the company that is now notorious for going back on its word about developer crunch or not is up to you.
