Cyberpunk 2077’s Approach To Modding Is Great For Fans, & Sets Up A Quality Sequel
Many games have a tumultuous relationship with their modding communities, but Cyberpunk 2077 takes a unique approach that supports its fan creators in interesting ways. Some modding spaces have to constantly worry about copyright claims, especially when the games they’re altering don’t have official support, such as titles you see under Nintendo’s umbrella. While some game companies like Bethesda or Larian Studios create easy ways for players to engage with mods in their projects, CD Projekt Red takes this level of support a step further.
The release of the Netflix series Cyberpunk Edgerunners Season 2 has prompted Cyberpunk 2077 to release a new update around the same time. This 2.5 update is much larger than the bug fixes and other small changes the game has gotten in the last year, adding new cosmetic cyberware customization options among other features (such as dual-wielding pistols through a new Cool skill tree ability). One of the biggest parts of the update is the inclusion of official mod support on consoles, with new quests inspired by Edgerunners and many quality-of-life tweaks too.
CD Projekt Red Confirms That Nearly Half the Quest Team for Cyberpunk 2077 Are Former Mod Creators
Comments shared by developers at CD Projekt Red following the 2.5 update reveal that many members of their creative team are former mod makers, specifically in the team that creates quests for Cyberpunk 2077. Lead directors and developers for Cyberpunk 2077 went on to praise the importance of mods in general, acknowledging not only their prominence, but also how they can inspire official content. According to a company RedStream, CD Projekt Red shared that a “significant” amount of their current team has been hired from various modding scenes, going from customizing Cyberpunk 2077 to actively working on its progression.
This strategy by CD Projekt Red reflects their new partnership with mod.io, a modding focused group that has made the mod support for Cyberpunk 2077 possible. However, associate game director Pawel Sasko, someone who was once the quest design lead for Cyberpunk 2077, also stated that many of the mod creators from places like mod.io are now co-workers helping improve the game post-launch. Many who once worked on custom mods for Cyberpunk 2077 built experience working on the game’s files and systems extensively, and that very same hands-on work is what gave CD Projekt Red the hire some of those mod creators in an official capacity.
According to Sasko, “this [mod creation] is a foot in the door technique, and a gateway into game dev,” indicating that some mod makers can become incredibly familiar with game design and coding processes by completing personalized projects. Sasko goes on to state that “at this point, half of the quest team is all former modders,” showing just how invested CD Projekt Red has been in hiring those who pioneered fan-made content for Cyberpunk 2077. This makes sense, as modders often have an intimate understanding of the games they’re trying to alter, oftentimes uses true creativity to mold titles in ways original developers didn’t intend to form something new.
Any Development for Cyberpunk 2 Could Be Enhanced by the Involvement of Talented Mod Makers
There is truly no end to the amount of quality mods in Cyberpunk 2077 already, with some adding new abilities, missions, or even story content through extensive fan-made additions. Upgrades to the game’s already impressive visual quality and corrections to slight errors in Cyberpunk 2077‘s bugs or glitches make mods invaluable for people in the game’s community, so it’s no wonder that the expertise of modders have led to recruitment by CD Projekt Red. It’s easy to forget that some companies also hire modders to make spin-off projects of existing games, as Valve did with Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2.
What makes this information about CD Projekt Red’s relationship with modders so exciting is that the talent from those creators is already going directly into making their games better. The ingenuity of the modding community being applied to the official Cyberpunk 2077 project has likely led to the interesting additions players are praising in update 2.5, and may be an indication to where the series is going next. The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 is confirmed to be in early stages of development, meaning that former modders could be hard at work on that project as well as continued refinements to the sci-fi RPG that got them into CD Projekt Red in the first place.
Having developers come from mods shows a progressive polishing of creative talent, taking people who self-taught themselves game development and putting that unique drive with other like-minded people. CD Projekt Red is taking a great approach with its mod community in this way, taking those who were already obsessed with their game and putting them in a framework to apply new ideas to it. Once The Witcher 4 comes out and focus at CD Projekt Red turns to a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, it’s likely that former modders will play a key role into how good that game turns out, hopefully including content fans love.
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