It’s natural for successful games, whether they be from indie devs or big AAA releases, to receive a new version on better hardware that is more content complete. It could be a “game of the year” edition or a “director’s cut” – it’s cheaper to develop and comes from an already-established IP. While Cyberpunk 2077 may have had one of the rockiest launches in gaming history, it’s another redemption with the recent 2.0 update that rights the majority of wrongs from the release build. CD Projekt RED has opted to release an Ultimate edition which includes the new Phantom Liberty expansion on new-gen consoles to commemorate this.

With such a hefty redesign comes some pain points for a disc-based release. It’s a point of contention, with recent games like Alan Wake 2 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth not releasing physically, but the alternative is that Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate is releasing on Xbox Series X with THREE discs, and the PlayStation 5 version will have a DLC voucher for the Phantom Liberty add-on instead of being on disc. It’s either save funds on discs or stuff as much storage as you can on them for game publishers now.

Games preservationists such as Doesitplay are sharing their displeasure with the PS5 build; it essentially means that when the servers for PS5 eventually go down, there will be no way to access the Phantom Liberty content in the distant future. CD Projekt RED’s Global Community Director Marcin Momot offered an explanation: “The reason for the difference in how the Phantom Liberty is included in the Ultimate Edition is due to technical requirements specific to each platform.”

CD Projekt RED restored a lot of goodwill in fixing the prevalent issues from the original release of Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve seen many doubters get won over, and Phantom Liberty received critical acclaim. It’s unfortunate that the studio was unable to prepare the content for the Ultimate edition in time, as it’s been done before in the likes of Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut, and other cases. Either way, the Ultimate edition arrives on December 5th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

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