It’s good news for the company, and as Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski notes, there’s “a huge community of gamers for whom the new expansion provides an excellent opportunity to again hit the trail with the White Wolf.”

It can also “see great potential for Songs of the Past to become the first encounter with The Witcher universe, as well as the beginning of a fresh adventure, for many gamers – even as we await the release of The Witcher 4.” Both “first encounter” and “fresh adventure” are interesting because they could hint at the premise of Songs of the Past.

The latter implies that there are no ties to Hearts of Stone and Blood of Wine, which makes sense given that Geralt’s journey was pretty much wrapped. But the former could also just as easily imply a clean slate as a soft reintroduction to the world of The Witcher. With Crossroads of Ravens serving as a prequel for the books, detailing Geralt’s first kill as a Witcher, maybe there’s some connection there.

That’s a story for 2027 when the expansion launches (or later this Summer, when CD Projekt RED reveals more info). In the meantime, the CD Projekt Group reported 191 million PLN (about $52.68 million) in revenues and 106 million PLN (roughly $29.24 million) in consolidated net earnings. Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continue to see strong sales, per CFO Piotr Nielubowicz, and even with successive increases in investment, the company maintains a steady cash reserve of 1.4 billion PLN ($386,113,000).

“We are well prepared to further intensify our parallel development work on several projects in the context of our excellent franchises,” said Nielubowicz, doubtless referring to The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2. As for Songs of the Past, stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.

And burn it did, thanks to a controversial launch by CD Projekt RED that also led to one of the most significant redemption stories in gaming. In September 2023, it felt like that story had come full circle. Update 2.0 fully revamped the game, allowing it to achieve its potential in every way, and Phantom Liberty delivered a stellar narrative with an unimaginable yet fitting narrative catharsis. CD Projekt RED got their win, finished their story, so on and so forth. Roll credits.

Except it didn’t stop. Granted, supporting a game for almost three years after launch was already notable, but it’s now April 2026, and Cyberpunk 2077 has finally received PS5 Pro support. You know, the same feature that the developer said there were no plans for back in 2024.

The best part about this update isn’t that it supports the regular PSSR for dynamic 4K. No, this is the Upgraded PSSR, which offers better image quality. It could have stopped there, but it went even further and implemented 8-way Bounding Volume Hierarchy to further improve the ray-traced lighting, reflections and shadows. That’s on top of Variable Rate Shading, and improved ray-tracing cache and object queries.

Which probably would have been enough on its own, but it also went a step further and added three different modes. You can opt for Performance Mode if a higher frame rate is most important, except now it can run at up to 90 frames per second on displays with Variable Refresh Rate support. Ray Tracing Mode delivers “only” 60 FPS but ensures ray tracing for all shadows. Ray-traced reflections are available with transparent objects and vehicle paint.

However, if you want the full Night City experience, then Ray Tracing Pro Mode is it. Alongside everything else, you get ray-traced ambient occlusion, emissive lighting and skylights at 40 frames per second on high refresh rate monitors. Even if you don’t have the latter, hitting 30 FPS with such fidelity and image quality is pretty impressive.

I know, I know – there’s no New Game Plus, no third-person perspective, and nothing for other platform holders to really latch on to. It’s a bummer, but the fact that CD Projekt RED is still supporting Cyberpunk 2077 to this extent is insane.

You could argue that it’s because this is their highest revenue earner, and you would absolutely be right, with over 35 million copies sold as of November 2025 (even reaching that milestone faster than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). However, it achieved those sales even without giving anyone any reason to believe that PS5 Pro support is on the way. Even if adding support did nothing to boost sales, it recognized that it’s a feature that a subset of players, however small, wanted for a long time, and set about delivering something it never promised.

Furthermore, despite the game still selling extremely well, it’s removing any barriers to entry. Last year, Cyberpunk 2077 was added to PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium’s Game Catalog. Last month, it debuted for Game Pass Ultimate and Premium, allowing even more players to carve out their legend in Night City.

Even when it released the Nintendo Switch 2 version last year, it didn’t simply port the Ultimate Edition over and call it a day. It delivered solid performance in both handheld and docked modes while adding motion controls, Joy-Con 2 mouse support, gyroscopic aiming, cross-saves, and even touchscreen support for the menus. If that wasn’t enough, the entire base game and Phantom Liberty shipped on a cartridge rather than a Game-Key Card. You bought it, you owned it. No additional shenanigans.

Then again, all of this – the PS5 Pro update, Game Pass and PS Plus releases, and Switch 2 Edition – is just born from a love for the game and the players who brought them to the dance. It’s one of the reasons why CD Projekt RED continued releasing new updates even after dropping the biggest yet.

Features like the Metro System, listening to radio stations on foot, replayable car races, gangs that actively pursue you in the open world if you annoy them enough, vehicle paint jobs, brand new vehicles, an overhauled Photo Mode, Auto Drive – things that you’d otherwise take for granted. Did it have to add all this and more in, even roping in Virtuos? No, but it went ahead anyway and made it all free.

Given everything that happened at launch – the lying, the deception, the disappointment (even when the game had several excellent qualities that held up over the years) – it’s understandable to be cynical about CD Projekt RED. There are still many people who won’t quote-unquote forgive the developer for what happened, and no amount of support will get them to change their minds.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the team put their hearts and souls into this game, and then a little extra on top for more than five years. There was no guarantee that all of this would recoup any goodwill, much less build excitement for the studio’s next projects – The Witcher 4 and Project Orion, aka Cyberpunk 2. Look at the sheer number of titles that are cancelled, month in and month out, despite pouring years and millions into the drain, never mind those that can’t even make it to market.

And yet, here we are, with currently an 88 percent “Very Positive” rating on Steam (94 percent if you consider the recent reviews), a presence that works hand in hand with transmedia like Edgerunners, and near-universal acclaim by those whose story in Night City changed them in ways they could never imagine.

It gives new meaning to the phrase “City of Legends.” Even if the megacorps run rampant, making people’s lives miserable, or crime is at an all-time high, or consumerism has led to all kinds of brand new societal nightmares. Even if it seems Johnny is right about dropping just one more nuke, it all comes together in a way where the player – and their encounters with everyone else – really mattered.

Of course, nothing says that CD Projekt RED has to stop here. With plans to scale its teams to over 450 developers by 2027 for Cyberpunk 2, there’s still plenty of room for additional updates and support. If The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt can supposedly receive that long-rumored free DLC, especially with The Witcher 4 next up on the developer’s release docket, then there’s nothing that says it can’t return to 2077. Maybe it’s a new tactic – using its existing games to hype up their sequels (and making some money in the process). Since the PS5 Pro update is finally here, perhaps that bit about no plans for additional DLCs or expansions won’t hold water for much longer.

We can’t really say for sure until it happens. Until then, we’re returning to Night City – slightly older, perhaps slightly wiser, with fond memories and a drive to make new ones. Because if The City of Dreams has proven anything for fans, it’s that some legends will never fade away.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Utilizing the upgraded version of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 Pro offers an upscaled 4K resolution. Performance and fidelity ultimately depend on three modes, starting with Ray Tracing Pro. It offers ray-tracing for everything while also implementing ray-traced skylights and ambient occlusion, running at 40 FPS for those with VRR displays (30 FPS otherwise).

Ray Tracing Mode runs at 60 FPS, and while there are some compromises, it still supports ray-traced shadows and reflections (albeit on vehicle paint and transparent objects). Finally, there’s Performance Mode, which offers 60 FPS on normal displays and up to 90 FPS on those with high refresh rates. It’s the best ideal option for those who care about performance above all else.

Of course, there are several other improvements, including Variable Rate Shading, 8-way Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH8) for enhanced ray-tracing performance, and so on. Check out the full patch notes here for more details, or learn more from global art director and VP Kuba Knapik.

Unfortunately, this is likely it as far as new features for Cyberpunk 2077, which has sold over 35 million copies as of November 2025. There’s still Cyberpunk 2 to look forward to, but since it entered pre-production in May 2025, the wait will be long indeed. At least we know that it takes place in a new city, which creator Mike Pondsmith refers to as “Chicago gone wrong.”

Global art director and VP Kuba Knapik said on the PlayStation Blog that, “We wanted to make the most of the PS5 Pro’s cutting-edge technology by bringing 4K visuals, powered-up performance, advanced ray tracing, and more to the Cyberpunk 2077 experience. The goal was to bring the very best out of both the hardware and our game to make Night City shine as brightly as possible.”

Besides PSSR, which upscales the visuals to 4K resolution in stunning detail, the development team added 8-way Bounding Volume Hierarchy to its ray-tracing for the more complicated scenes, “bringing the lighting even closer to our artistic vision for this world.”

“Imagine the sunlight catching off the front fairing of your Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X as you park up, depart down a mysterious dark alley, and uncover secrets glowing under neon light. Players’ overall immersion in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 gets a serious boost from PS5 Pro,” says Knapik.

Speaking of ray tracing, you get not one, not two, but three different modes to choose from. Ray Tracing Pro Mode enables everything, from ray traced reflections and emissive lighting to ambient occlusion, shadows, and skylight. Those with variable refresh rate monitors can play at 40 FPS, while everyone else can experience it at 30 FPS.

Performance Mode delivers up to 90 FPS on VRR displays, while Ray Tracing Mode is a balance between the two, delivering ray tracing and 60 FPS.

Of course, we’ll need to go hands-on with the update to properly detail all the improvements (and anything else that CD Projekt RED may have snuck in), so stay tuned. Cyberpunk 2077 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 – check out our review here. A sequel, Project Orion (unofficially called Cyberpunk 2), is also in the works.

If you’ll recall, CD Projekt RED said there were no plans to support PS5 Pro back in November 2024 (which it further reiterated regarding patch 2.2). To see it change course is quite interesting. Of course, how the development team plans to utilize it remains to be seen.

Thus far, other developers have praised Upgraded PSSR for providing higher-quality and more stable image quality. In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Silent Hill f, it’s helped reduce flickering to a significant degree compared to the older PSSR. Ninja Theory even praised it for improving the quality of particles in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.

If PS5 Pro support is on the horizon, then you have to wonder about that other long-requested feature, New Game Plus. Is this a sign that CD Projekt RED is finally going to give in to fans? One certainly hopes, so stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

“We have no plans for additional DLCs or expansions. If anything changes, we will inform you all!” it said on Twitter in response to a fan asking about “When secret new DLC?” Unfortunately, it didn’t respond when told to “do the same with The Witcher account.”

Phantom Liberty has sold ten million copies as of May 2025 – an especially impressive milestone given that the base game crossed 35 million sales. CD Projekt RED has released multiple updates in recent years, working with Virtuos to add new features like CrystalCoat for customizing vehicle colors. You can even ride the subway, a feature that many lambasted for its absence from the title for years.

Unfortunately, those hankering for more will have to wait until the release of Project Orion, unofficially known as Cyberpunk 2, which doesn’t have a release window or date. It features a new city, which creator Mike Pondsmith likened to “Chicago gone wrong,” and could implement multiplayer, a feature originally meant for the first game before its disastrous launch.

Then again, maybe plans will change, and it will receive the same (alleged) treatment as The Witcher 3, whose new DLC is apparently out in May and connects to The Witcher 4.

Time will tell, but in the meantime, if you haven’t played Cyberpunk 2077, it’s now available on Game Pass alongside Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Other notable releases for the first wave of Game Pass in March include Final Fantasy 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, both out today on Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass. to a T, a new adventure from Katamari Damacy’s creator is next on March 4th, though it’s currently playable for Premium subscribers.

EA Sports F1 25 arrives on the same day for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, followed by Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf on March 5th (which also marks the day of its launch on all platforms). And if you’re not keen on exploring Night City and becoming a legend as V, there’s also Construction Simulator, which drops for all three tiers on the same day.

For those who didn’t venture into Pharloom last September, Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available for Premium subscribers on March 12th. It’s followed by DreamWorks Gabby’s Dollhouse: Ready to Party on March 17th for all three tiers.

Of course, several titles will also be leaving the service on March 15th. Check them out below and finish them while they’re still available.

• Bratz Rhythm & Style (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Enter the Gungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• F1 23 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• He is Coming (PC)
• Lightyear Frontier (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Creative director Igor Sarzyński didn’t affirm one way or another, but he definitely prefers the “uninterrupted immersion” that the current game offers. “Stumbled upon some old pics I shot during Phantom Liberty development,” he said on Bluesky. “Gotta admit, setting up cutscenes in this game would be extremely pleasant (because everything looks mindblowingly amazing), but in the end I value our uninterrupted immersion more.”

That immersion is due to Cyberpunk 2077 being almost entirely in first-person as players embody V through their journey in Night City. Third-person cutscenes are a rare occurrence, but you’re otherwise witnessing everything through your character’s eyes. So while Sarzyński isn’t necessarily denying a third-person perspective for Cyberpunk 2, it certainly looks unlikely.

If you needed anymore evidence that he’s factoring it in alongside cutscenes here, he responded to another user who claimed that the current presentation “limits interest from people who enjoy third person.” “When something is for everyone, then it’s for no one. It’s okay to not vibe with our choices!”

Back in 2023, quest director Paweł Sasko said the team hadn’t decided whether the sequel would be first-person. Cut to 2025, when a job listing for senior gameplay animator indicated that it would be first-person after all. With pre-production starting last May and CD Projekt RED planning to scale up its teams over the next two years, players may be looking at another highly immersive experience. With potentially sporadic glimpses of their created character, of course.

In a post on his Patreon, Ross wrote about CD Projekt following the actions taken by Take-Two Interactive—referring to the parent company of Rockstar Games having issued a DMCA takedown request to remove mods for Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as for Hangar 13’s Mafia: Definitive Edition back in 2022.

“Now that the dust has settled, I’m even more sorry to announce that we are leaving behind an adventure that so many of you deeply loved and enjoyed. CD PROJEKT S.A. decided that they would follow in Take-Two Interactive Software’s steps and issued a DMCA notice against me for the removal of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod,” wrote Ross.

He also addressed the fact that the only way CD Projekt would have allowed work on the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod to continue would be if Ross were to stop locking access to it behind a Patreon subscription. Declining to do the work for free, Ross decided to take the mod down instead.

“At least they were a little more open about it, and I could get a reply both from their legal department and from the VP of business development. But in the end it amounted to the same iron-clad corpo logic: every little action that a company takes is in the name of money, but everything that modders do must be absolutely for free,” he said.

CD Projekt’s VP of business development Jan Rosner took to social media to offer further clarification, noting that the mod’s existence went against the company’s guidelines about mods being available for free. “This directly violates our Fan Content Guidelines: we never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” he wrote. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.”

Further in his post, Ross also confirmed that his next project will revolve around bringing VR support to Larian Studios’ award-winning RPG Baldur’s Gate 3. He wrapped up his post by releasing an early version of the mod without putting it through testing.

“Despite everything, I really want to end this on a positive note, so I’ll jump the gun and just release today the new conversion I have been working on, without going through the ordinary testing cycle. Maybe it will be a little rough around the edges, but we’ll take care of that, as we always do,” he wrote.

The takedown of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod comes just days after Meta announced the closure of a number of game development studios under its VR-specific Reality Labs division.

Among the studios affected by these closures are Armature Studios, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru Games. Batman: Arkham Shadow developer Camouflaj has also been affected. However, it hasn’t been closed down. Rather, it was hit by lay-offs, and its few remaining employees are now working on projects that better align with Meta’s current business plans.

It’s been five years since launch. Looking back, what stands out to you most about Cyberpunk 2077’s release, both the highs and the things you wish you’d handled differently?

What stands out most for me is the contrast. On one hand, the ambition, the world, the characters: the things players immediately connected with emotionally. On the other, the reality of how we launched, and not fully delivering on our vision. That being said, I’m so proud of how the team responded afterward; it took some real grit and resilience. The story of Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t just about the launch, it’s also about everything that came after.

"The story of Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t just about the launch, it’s also about everything that came after."

Compared to the launch version, the game has changed dramatically. When you look at the journey from 1.0 to where it is today, what were the biggest lessons CDPR took away, creatively, technically, and organizationally?

Creatively, we learned the importance of focus and discipline. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 works best when its systems, narrative, and themes all reinforce each other, rather than competing for attention, or even openly working against each other. One thing we built on as much as we could, but we could have been smarter about implementing when designing the game, is elements of ludonarrative dissonance. V is dying, vomiting blood, and coughing, but role-playing game progression makes them more powerful with every finished quest. We used this to strengthen the narrative and feeling of loss, as every step V takes brings the inevitability of terminal illness closer, no matter how powerful you feel. We used that tension as well as we could, but could have focused on it earlier.

Technically, we learned how critical a strong, scalable foundation is. Many of the improvements players see today were only possible because we reworked core systems instead of layering fixes on top — sometimes ripping the guts out and redoing it is the only way. Ambition needs to go hand in hand with technical possibilities, and limitations need to be respected and used as a stimulus to make smarter design decisions.

Organizationally, the biggest lesson was alignment. Clear ownership, better cross-team communication, and more realistic planning made a huge difference, and you saw the results of the changes we made internally in Phantom Liberty. Cyberpunk forced us to grow up as a studio; we have redone or iterated most of our procedures, and grew a habit of constantly optimizing and refining that process.

"Many of the improvements players see today were only possible because we reworked core systems instead of layering fixes on top"

How far back does Phantom Liberty actually go in terms of planning? Was the expansion always envisioned as another major chapter within Night City, or was there ever a version on the table where players would leave the city entirely?

Phantom Liberty existed as an idea relatively early, but its final form evolved over time. From the start, we felt Night City still had untold stories worth exploring, especially stories that leaned into espionage, power, and control. Dogtown allowed us to show a different face of the city, one that felt familiar but also dangerous and unpredictable.

With all of our expansions, the goal is to strengthen the main game so players who reach out for it many years after the release will feel how naturally it fits into overall design, and most of the time won’t even realize what was added in the expansion and what components were always there.

What inspired the decision to connect Phantom Liberty so directly to the base game’s endgame and outcomes? What did you want those added options to say thematically about V’s story?

Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG and ultimately a story about choices and consequences. We didn’t want Phantom Liberty to feel like a detached side story, it was supposed to be a part of the main narrative, neatly connected to the motivation of the main character. We wanted it to matter. By connecting it to the endgame, we could ask harder questions about V’s survival, sacrifice, and agency. Not every choice leads to a happy ending, but every choice says something about who V is and what they’re willing to give up.

"We didn’t want Phantom Liberty to feel like a detached side story, it was supposed to be a part of the main narrative, neatly connected to the motivation of the main character."

Our game is a narrative about terminal illness and dreams of becoming a legend getting crashed early by the inevitability of death. Placing an expansion as a narrative branch anywhere but in the middle of the story would have undermined the main premise of the game. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt we were able to continue Geralt’s story by placing Blood and Wine after the events of the main game, but because of the very nature of Cyberpunk 2077, hooking it up as a branch of the main story was the only strong option we saw.

Do you have a personal favourite ending? Which one resonates most with you in terms of story, emotional payoff, and character arcs, and why?

I don’t think I can pick a single “best” ending, but the endings that resonate with me most are the quieter ones, where victory is ambiguous and the emotional cost is clear. Cyberpunk isn’t about saving the world; it’s about surviving it, sometimes at the expense of your dreams. Endings that embrace that tension feel the most honest to me.

Many of them have this component and shades of meaning, designed to make the player question their decisions. The introduction of Johnny Silverhand is intentionally antagonistic; he is conflicted with himself and angry, ready to kill you to stop feeling. And throughout the game, V’s and the player’s perception of him change. It’s heartbreaking to see him go, and it’s moving to me when people decide to give up V’s body at the end so Johnny can live. This transformative arc takes empathy, and that is something beautiful about humans. Despite the beginning of this relationship, for some players compassion is the answer.

"It’s heartbreaking to see him go, and it’s moving to me when people decide to give up V’s body at the end so Johnny can live."

What are your favourite side quests across the base game and Phantom Liberty? Are there any that you feel best represent what Cyberpunk does at its strongest?

Our games are a melting pot of genres and themes. From this goulash and personal touch of many individual creators, who have common goals, emerge quests executed with care. From the base game, quests like Sinnerman or Dream On represent Cyberpunk at its strongest: morally uncomfortable, thematically dense, and deeply human. The storyline of Judy and Evelyn, contrasted with Flaming Crotch Man; the stories of Skippy and the sentient vending machine, together they deliver a blend of noir, tragedy, comedy, and pastiche all aligned by one stage: Night City.

In Phantom Liberty, I’m very proud of how side content blends seamlessly with the main narrative. Many of those quests don’t announce themselves as important, but they linger with players long after they’re finished. The spy storyline leads V through a variety of thriller- and action-inspired sequences, borrowing from documentaries, romances, thrillers, and horrors, moving between Bridge of Spies, Ocean’s Eleven, James Bond, and even Alien: Isolation, united all by the common, very clear narrative thread. Phantom Liberty demonstrated our developed thematic discipline, and portrayed how much variety can be found in a very narrowly defined spy theme.

Thanks again for your time. Is there anything you’d like to say directly to the community and fans who’ve stuck with Cyberpunk 2077 over the years?

Thank you, chooms! Your patience, critique, passion, mods, fan art, videos, and discussions pushed us to make Cyberpunk 2077 the game it is today. This journey wouldn’t have happened without you, and we don’t take that trust lightly. We’re incredibly grateful you stayed with us in Night City.