Cyberpunk 2077 Has Been Delayed--Here's The New Release Date

CD Projekt Red has announced a delay for Cyberpunk 2077, pushing the anticipated RPG back from its original April 16 release date to September 17. The game--which is available for pre-order--is still scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Google Stadia, but you'll have to wait a bit longer to delve into its cyberpunk future.

"We are currently at a state where the game is complete and playable, but there's still work to be done," CD Projekt Red wrote in a press release, embedded below. "Night City is massive--full of stories, content, and places to visit, but due to the sheer scale and complexity of it all, we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing, and polishing. We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation and postponing launch will give the precious months we need to make the game perfect."

CD Projekt Red added that there will be "regular updates" on the game's progress going forward. They also confirmed that the Cyberpunk 2077 team will work longer hours despite the additional time--this period, known in the industry as "crunch," remains one of the core issues in the ongoing discussion about game industry unionization. Despite the delay pushing the release date closer to the launch of both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, CD Projekt Red currently has no plans to make next-gen console versions of Cyberpunk 2077.

Night City is the setting for Cyberpunk 2077, and CD Projekt Red said it wants to create the design of the city so that it offers a "unique take" on cyberpunk. "When we showed the demo last year, people were surprised at first that it was so sunny," Cyberpunk 2077 concept art coordinator Marthe Jonkers said in an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz. "They expected rainy, dark cyberpunk but you can make a cyberpunk city in California. Of course, it will rain there, because we have a weather system, and it will also be night, but we are really trying to get this fresh take on cyberpunk."

The city itself is built with its own history, which takes place over four distinct eras. During entropism, there was intense poverty. Kitsch saw an increase in the low- and middle-class creating and buying colorful and extravagant items. During neomilitarism, the rich invaded Night City and built towering skyscrapers. Finally, neokitsch saw the rich beginning to adopt the more colorful style of the poor when designing buildings. All these styles twist in on each other, creating a city where you can immediately identify when something was built or which time period someone probably comes from.