A hot potato: Imaging buying a game to run on a system that met the minimum hardware requirements, only for an update delivered nearly three years later to move the goal posts and put your machine out of bounds. Are you now expected to upgrade your machine to play the same game that worked just fine the day before?
CD Projekt Red has announced updated PC system requirements for Cyberpunk 2077 that will take effect following the next update to the base game, and not everyone is happy with the decision.
The developer said the base game update will arrive no earlier than 90 days from now, and the updated system requirements will also apply to Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion. Three months from now is right before Phantom Liberty's scheduled September 26 launch date.
Existing minimum system requirements call for at least an Intel Core i5-3570K / AMD FX-8310, 8 GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radon RX 470, and 70 GB of storage space. Once the new update drops, the minimum system requirements will climb to a Core i7-6700 / Ryzen 5 1600, 12 GB of memory, a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB / Radeon RX 580 8 GB, and 70 GB of SSD storage.
Minimum requirements are even higher if you are interested in playing with ray tracing enabled.
CD Projekt Red notes that the game will not stop working for systems that will soon fall outside the minimum requirements but with the update to the base game, they will discontinue active support for these systems and stop testing the game on such setups.
Some gamers are up in arms over the pending changes, and rightfully so. As one frustrated user noted, updates are supposed to optimize performance, not increase requirements.
CD Projekt Red shared a trailer for Phantom Liberty during the recent Xbox Games Showcase. The expansion is already available to pre-purchase on digital distribution platforms like Steam priced at $29.99.