Cyberpunk 2077’s 1.04 patch makes changes to reduce epilepsy risk

by | Dec 11, 2020 | [Tech News], The Verge

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is rolling out an update to the game that could reduce the potential for some sequences to induce epileptic symptoms. The risks of seizure were brought to light by Game Informer editor Liana Ruppert earlier this week. The 1.04 hotfix is now live on PlayStation consoles and PC, and CDPR is working to have the update out “as soon as possible” on Xbox.

CDPR says it has changed the way its “braindance” sequences look. During these sequences, a device is placed in front of your character’s eyes that flashes red and white lights. The effect is similar to what actual neurologists do to trigger seizures for diagnoses, according to Ruppert, who reported that she suffered an epileptic episode when she played the game.

The flashing effect during braindances has been “smoothed out and the flashes reduced in frequency and magnitude,” according to CDPR’s patch notes. Ruppert said she worked with the studio this week to help test the fix. “I think this will help MANY epileptics and non-epileptics feel safer in #Cyberpunk2077,” Ruppert said.

The update has many other fixes, including one for an issue where some copyrighted songs would play even when a player had toggled a setting to disable copyrighted music from playing. CDPR had warned streamers to turn off all music in the game on Thursday as a temporary workaround to avoid potentially triggering a DMCA strike.

Despite Cyberpunk 2077’s many early issues, including reports of poor performance on older consoles, the game has been a huge financial success so far. CDPR has already earned back the total costs of development and marketing purely through digital pre-orders, according to a document on CDPR’s investor site (PDF). The game had more than eight million preorders, CDPR announced on Wednesday.

Cyberpunk 2077 also smashed Steam’s concurrent player record for a single-player game, peaking at more than 1 million concurrent players on Thursday, according to SteamDB. That figure more than doubled the previous record held by Fallout 4, which had a peak of more than 470,000 concurrent players in 2015.