CD Projekt Red’s upcoming dystopian RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, has already caused controversy thanks to its use of transgender characters as advertisement models in the game, but it seems there might be more to come.
The game’s original creator has stepped forward to claim it’s an “inherently political” game, which might cause some issues for players who want to keep their titles free from politics.
Mike Pondsmith, creator of the original Cyberpunk 1988 tabletop game, and who has some heavy influence in the development of the video game, told Video Games Chronicle that it’s going to be pretty hard to escape politics in the title.
“Somebody asked me a while back if Cyberpunk was political and I said inherently it’s always political,” said Pondsmith.
“It’s not politics in terms of right or left, or even conservative versus liberal… everything is political. Human beings are political. First we got food, then we got prostitution, then we got politics. And we might have gotten politics before prostitution, but I’m not sure.
“Basically, it’s all political but a big part of what Cyberpunk talks about is the disparities of power and how technology readdresses that.”
Pondsmith went on to give an example of this, saying: “When I started my paper game business in the 80s, we had to go and get stuff printed and we had to go to specific areas to have films made. It cost us a lot of money and the people doing it set our timetables, how much we paid… we had very little control.
“Within two years my art director, who was also an engineer, had redesigned personal scanners to be better than the ones we used to go to and we could now do all of that stuff in-house. Benjamin Franklin once said the printing press belongs to those who own one. Well, I owned one.”
Although it might not appeal to all fans, it sounds like it’s going to add a level of realism to the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases April 2020.
Featured Image Credit: CD Projekt Red