Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is rolling out a game update that may decrease the potential for epileptic symptoms to be caused by certain sequences.
Earlier this week, Game Informer editor Liana Ruppert brought to light the dangers of seizures. The 1.04 hotfix is now live on PC and PlayStation consoles, and CDPR is working on Xbox to get the update “as soon as possible.”
CDPR says the way its “braindance” sequences look has improved. There is a device put in front of the eyes of your character during these sequences that flashes red and white lights.
According to Ruppert, who claimed that she had an epileptic episode when she played the game, the impact is close to what real neurologists do to trigger diagnostic seizures.
According to CDPR’s patch notes, the flickering effect was “smoothed out and the flashes decreased in frequency and magnitude.” Ruppert said this week she had collaborated with the studio to help test the patch.
I've been staying off of socials today but I am so thrilled to see this change! I worked with CDPR earlier this week to test some braindance animations and I think this will help MANY epileptics and non-epileptics feel safer in #Cyberpunk2077.
Thank you, @CDPROJEKTRED 💚 https://t.co/KUOVFJGFmA
— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) December 11, 2020
The update has several other fixes, including one for a problem where even if a player had toggled a setting to disable copyrighted music from playing, some copyrighted songs would function.
As a temporary fix on Thursday, CDPR had warned streamers to turn off all music in the game to avoid potentially triggering a DMCA attack.
Despite the many early problems of Cyberpunk 2077, including rumors of poor results on older consoles, the game so far has been a major financial success.
According to a document on CDPR’s investor website, CDPR has already recovered the total production and marketing costs solely from digital pre-orders. The game, CDPR reported on Wednesday, had more than eight million preorders.
According to SteamDB, Cyberpunk 2077 also destroyed Steam’s simultaneous player record for a single-player game, peaking at more than 1 million simultaneous players on Thursday.