But reaffirm support for Ukraine
CD Projekt have formally commented on the presence of references to the Russia-Ukraine war inCyberpunk 2077’s recently added Ukrainian localisation, apologising for dialogue lines “that can be considered offensive by Russian gamers”, while reiterating their support for Ukraine.
“The release version of Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077 features elements of dialogues that can be considered offensive by Russian gamers,” the studio’s global PR director Radek Grabowski commented in a statement to RPS. “These lines have not been written by CD PROJEKT RED staff and do not represent our views. We are working to produce correct lines and substitute them in the next update.”
“We apologise for the situation and have made steps to avoid situations like that in the future.”
Localisation management team representative Mariia Strilchukhad this to add on Xitter(Grabowski supplied me with an English translation):
“I’d like to clarify re. the corrections to the Ukrainian localization. They refer to the lines where the translation lost its original meaning, including certain references to the Russian-Ukrainian war. Our support to Ukraine remains unchanged, but we prefer to show it through positive actions.”
Reading between the lines, it sounds like CD Projekt won’t necessarily remove every reference to the situation in Ukraine, just the ones “that can be considered offensive” to Russians.
According to Cyberpunk 2077’s credits, the Ukrainian localisation is the work of Kyiv, Ukraine-based SBT Localisation, but it’s not clear whether every last reference to Ukraine and Russia is SBT’s doing. In particular, the wall graffiti referring to Crimea being part of Ukraine, rather than Russia, can surely only be the work of CD Projekt’s own artists. That’s just me speculating, of course.
The Ukrainian localisation was added as part ofCyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update, which introduced new skilltrees, quests and minigames. The update launched a few days ahead of theCyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libertyexpansion, on sale now, which Graham summarised as “perhaps the best expansion pack ever made”.
