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CD Projekt has revealed that players who buy Cyberpunk 2077 for the current-gen Xbox One will not have to re-purchase the game if they’d like to play it when they upgrade to the next-gen Xbox Series X.
In a tweet, the company said “gamers should never be forced to purchase the same game twice or pay for upgrades” and confirmed “owners of Cyberpunk 2077 for Xbox One will receive the Xbox Series X upgrade for free when available”.
Gamers should never be forced to purchase the same game twice or pay for upgrades. Owners of #Cyberpunk2077 for Xbox One will receive the Xbox Series X upgrade for free when available. https://t.co/nfkfFLj85w
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 24, 2020
While many developers ensured their games were available on both current- and next-gen systems simultaneously when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released, rarely do we see studios offer players the chance to upgrade their current-gen game for next-gen systems at no extra cost.
At the time of writing, no such offer has been extended to players hoping to play on the PlayStation 5.
CD Projekt Red recently delayed its release to September 17th, 2020. In a statement shared via the studio’s social media channels, the developer said that while the game is “complete and playable […] there’s still work to be done”, so it was necessary to push the game back from its intended April release to Q3 2020.
Yet despite the five-month extension, the developer admitted in an investor Q&A that the additional time will likely, and “unfortunately”, result in further “crunch”, the term given to developers required to work long days and substantial overtime in the run-up to release.
“To some degree, yes, to be honest,” Kiciński said when asked if staff would still be required to crunch. “We try to limit crunch as much as possible but it is the final stage. We try to be reasonable in this regard, but yes. Unfortunately.”
CD Projekt has just become Europe’s second-largest video game company, second only to megacorp Ubisoft in terms of market valuation. Just a month ago the company was valued at $6.8 billion (£5.2bn), but thanks to the phenomenal success of its accompanying Netflix show and the recent release of The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch – which sent sales soaring with a 500 per cent increase – the company’s now thought to be worth $8 billion (£6.1bn). By comparison, Europe’s biggest game company, Ubisoft, is worth around $9.6 billion (£7.4bn).
