Cyberpunk 2077 is finally launching for real on PS5 and Xbox Series X

Developer CD Projekt Red showed off new footage of Cyberpunk 2077’s long-awaited next-gen upgrade today. During a livestream, the company demonstrated the game’s familiar hacking and gunplay combat on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. But now, the open-world cyber adventure runs at a smoother framerate and has more impressive graphical features.

The next-gen update and other improvements are coming as part of version 1.5, and it surprised launch today. There is also a free trial version that let’s you try the game for five hours. You can carry your progress over to the full game after purchase.

As part of its stream, CD Projekt Red detailed some of the biggest changes. For example, the studio completely reworked how the perk system and combat balance works. This means if you continue your save on the 1.5 update, you’ll have to redistribute your perk points.

To give you more to do with the improved perks, the design team has also upgraded enemy intelligence. CD Projekt Red claims that NPCs should now have much more interesting behaviors when in battle.

Other updates include a better driving model, crowds that don’t despawn when you turn around, and a more friendly time-skip feature.

This is Cyberpunk 2077’s real launch

More than a year after its original launch, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like it’s finally coming out for real. The game’s original debut was infamous for its bugs and technical issues, but Cyberpunk’s problems ran deeper than that. It was guilty of having a sterile world with few possibilities for emergent, sandbox interactions.

CD Projekt Red seems very aware of those criticisms and is addressing them specifically with update 1.5. The studio spent a lot of time during its stream showing how drivers and civilians react more realistically to threatening situations.

The goal is to make the game feel more alive than it did originally so that the world feels as interesting as some of the better quests.

Now the question is whether these improvements are enough to give Cyberpunk 2077 a new chance to succeed. With the game finally coming out for real on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, some people may give Cyberpunk another chance or they may even try it for the first time.

And with this, CD Projekt Red can begin the long, tough path of rebuilding trust among its fans.