‘Cyberpunk 2077’ developer apologises for anti-Russian comments found in ‘Phantom Liberty’

Update 2.0 of Cyberpunk 2077 has apparently added anti-Russian sentiments in the Ukrainian localisation of the role-playing game and the developer denied prior knowledge of these statements.

Per PC Gamer, the Ukrainian version of update 2.0 contained changes that specifically related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that occurred in February 2022 after years of conflict in the Donbas.

These included a line for the non-playable police characters that was altered from “Couldn’t all these assholes bite it out in the Badlands?” to “Couldn’t all this rusnia bite it out in the Badlands?” “Rusnia” is a newly formed word that Ukrainians have been using to denote Russians in a derogatory light.

Additionally, another line is now “Go fuck yourself in the same direction as the ship did,” which refers to the words used by a  Ukrainian border guard to a Russian missile cruiser that attacked Snake Island.

CD Projekt Red shared that it did not realise that these anti-Russian comments had made it into the game. Speaking on social media channels, it said that the additions “do not represent [its] views” and did not originate from anyone at the developer.

“The Ukrainian localisation of Cyberpunk 2077 contains several remarks that could offend some Russian players,” explained CD Projekt Red (via machine translation). “We are working to fix them and replace them in the next update. We apologise for this situation and are taking steps to ensure it does not happen again.”

CD Projekt Red has taken a stance against Russia, having donated approximately £181,000 to Polska Akcja Humanitarna, a humanitarian organisation located in Poland.

The localisation of the update was the responsibility of SBT Localization which has also worked on Baldur’s Gate 3, Darkest Dungeon, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and more.

Update 2.0 launched before Phantom Liberty, the spy thriller themed expansion that introduces Solomon Reed (played by Idris Elba) to the game.

“V’s crash course in espionage makes for a gripping plot, and if you liked the original game’s main story, you’ll love this one,” said Andy Brown, praising the addition of the new area of Dogtown and the remainder of the changes that came with the update.

In other gaming news, The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom can be beaten without ever touching the surface of Hyrule, though it took this player some time to achieve this.