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The Real Problem With ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ On PS5 And Xbox Series X

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Cyberpunk 2077 is the most hotly-anticipated game of 2020. In fact, it’s one of the most hotly-anticipated games ever largely thanks to the sterling reputation of CD Projekt RED, the Polish developer of The Witcher series.

I didn’t receive a pre-launch review code of the game, so I’m going to have to play catch-up before I write a review. I’ve chosen to play the game on two different platforms: PC and Stadia.

The platforms I won’t be playing the game on include PS4/PS5 and Xbox One/Xbox Series X—at least for now.

By all accounts, the game runs ok on next-gen systems and the “Pro” version of the PS4 and Xbox One X, but it looks pretty terrible compared to the DLSS / ray-tracing goodness of the PC version. The base PS4/Xbox One can barely play the game, which looks truly uncertifiable on these systems.

Oddly enough, most accounts of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia are fairly positive—it’s not as good-looking or smooth as the game on PC with current hardware, but it’s better than on consoles, something Google GOOG promised long ago but has too often failed to deliver.

On PC, of course, the game shines. CDPR is a PC-centric developer, after all. The best way to play Cyberpunk 2o77 is with an Nvidia GeForce 30xx graphics card and a high-powered Intel INTC or AMD CPU all running on an NVME SSD drive with plenty of RAM, paired with a 4K gaming monitor.

But what about Xbox Series X and PS5? A lot of video games on these next-gen systems look very nearly as good as the same games on PC. While a game like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla does look best on my gaming rig, it looks awfully close on my Xbox Series X. There’s not a ton of differences between Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on my PS5 and my PC. And the fact that these are running on an OLED TV screen across the room rather than a monitor on my desk also factors in.

The difference, of course, is that Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t actually exist for PS5 or Xbox Series X. There is no next-gen version of the game. The only true next-gen versions of 2077 are Stadia and PC, period. The version you may be playing on Xbox Series X and PS5 are just upscaled last-gen editions, which is why they just don’t hold a candle to the PC version. When CDPR releases next-gen versions of 2077 they may look every bit as good as the PC version or they may not. We have to wait and see.

And maybe CDPR should have waited as well, choosing to just not release last-gen versions of this game at all. It would have been a blow to gamers, true, but releasing a half-baked, second-rate version of the game on last-gen is hardly something to be proud of, either. It’s hardly in-keeping with CDPR’s reputation. This game was simply too advanced, too big, too graphically stupendous to be released on PS4 and Xbox One. It deserved a full-fledged next-gen release and the waiting on gamers’ parts that this would have entailed.

As for when a true Xbox Series X and PS5 version of the game will come out, that’s a mystery. It will happen but we have no solid date on the matter.

The good news is, you can use this as an excuse to get into PC building. Or, for a less full-featured but much cheaper option, you can get a Stadia Pro setup for free when you buy a copy of Cyberpunk 2077 on that platform, at least while supplies last (and only until December 18th). A Stadia for the price of the game itself, which (depending on your internet connection) performs and looks better than 2077 on any existing console, isn’t a bad deal at all.

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