“Such a wild ride”: Cyberpunk 2077 Fans Celebrate the Unlikeliest of Gaming Turnarounds as Phantom Liberty Turns One
It has been one year since Phantom Liberty expanded on the Cyberpunk 2077 experience and made it a lot better.
- Cyberpunk 2077 went through an extremely rocky initial launch, but it found its footing years down the line.
- Aside from Update 2.0, the Phantom Liberty expansion added meaningful content to the game and proved to be a hit.
- CD Projekt RED and the various voice actors who brought the DLC to life addressed the fanbase to celebrate its first anniversary.
Exactly a year ago today, one of the most unexpected plot twists in the realm of gaming took place, as Cyberpunk 2077 made a blazing comeback in such a spectacular way that it took everyone by surprise.
For the uninitiated, CD Projekt RED’s extremely ambitious title that was initially launched in 2020 came with a plethora of game-breaking issues that could have ended up destroying whatever future it was potentially going to have, to the extent that a well-respected studio that has been responsible for masterpieces like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt started to lose faith with even its veteran fanbase.
However, around three years after that, Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0 swooped in and changed the entire fate of the game, and to celebrate its first anniversary, CDPR and the talent involved in the expansion addressed and thanked the community.
CD Projekt RED and Co. Have a Special Message for Cyberpunk 2077 Players
For fans who may have started their Cyberpunk 2077 journey when it was already an established franchise with an amazing expansion and a Netflix anime adaptation called Edgerunners, it may be difficult to believe that things were not always this smooth for the CD Projekt RED IP, as it had one of the rockiest beginnings witnessed in modern gaming.
The current successful state of the Cyberpunk universe owes its triumph to Phantom Liberty, a massive expansion pack that completely turned the tables when it was launched on September 26, 2023. Perhaps even the studio itself did not expect the game to make such a glorious return, as on its first anniversary, it showed its gratitude towards the fanbase for not losing hope in the developer and sticking by the IP in its darkest hour.
In a post on Cyberpunk 2077‘s official X handle, CDPR shared a special video message for the community, bringing the various voices that brought Phantom Liberty to life on board to celebrate the occasion and one of gaming’s greatest plot twists. The voice cast members that made appearances in the video include Alex Jordan (Mr. Hands), Kay Bess (President Rosalind Myers), Minji Chang (Songbird), and Eliah Mountjoy (Kurt Hansen).
The Cyberpunk Community Appreciates Phantom Liberty’s Existence
To fully understand the CD Projekt RED fanbase’s sentiments regarding Cyberpunk 2077‘s epic turnaround, one must be aware of the fact that it was a highly anticipated video game during the years leading up to its release.
Being CDPR’s first departure to a brand new IP after working on The Witcher for a very long time, its problematic launch left the studio’s fans extremely disappointed, which is a feeling that got overtaken by the strong narrative and astounding experience delivered by Phantom Liberty.
Calling the Cyberpunk 2077 journey a rollercoaster ride would be an understatement, as it kicked things off in the least ideal circumstances but ended up being one of the most played video games for a lot of players, especially because of how immersive the various districts of Night City truly are with something always going on.
While fans are quite satisfied with what CDPR has managed to create out of an unfortunate situation, they still want the studio to evaluate everything that went wrong with Cyberpunk 2077 and not repeat the mistakes in future installments.
Although some recent revelations about the next Cyberpunk title have left the fanbase unimpressed with the direction CD Projekt RED is supposedly heading in, it is likely that by the time it actually gets released, the studio will likely ensure that it does not make its fans go through the same thing as they did before Phantom Liberty saved the day.
