What you need to know
- Cyberpunk 2077 is an ambitious open-world sci-fi RPG that was assailed by a chaotic and flawed launch.
- On Tuesday, CD Projekt RED finally released the long-awaited current-gen upgrade for Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
- While the 1.5 update includes dozens of major improvements, additions, and fixes, many players have lamented the lack of 60 FPS support for Xbox Series S.
- On Wednesday, CDPR confirmed it's investigating raising the framerate cap for Series S, but can't confirm anything at the moment.
Describing Cyberpunk 2077's life so far as "complicated" is an understatement, but CD Projekt RED has committed to improving the ambitious title's experience, especially on consoles. After months of waiting, current-gen consoles like Xbox Series X|S and PS5 finally enjoy official support for Cyberpunk 2077.
The Cyberpunk 2077 1.5 update brought dozens of new features, visual enhancements, quality-of-life improvements, and fixes to the open-world sci-fi RPG. Xbox Series X and PS5 enjoy the bulk of improvements with 4K at 60 FPS support, ray tracing, and more.
One current-gen console has received additional attention from the video game community thanks to its lackluster performance in comparison. The Xbox Series S does not feature ray tracing, and is locked to a "Performance" mode at 1440p resolution and up to 30 FPS. The framerate, specifically, has attracted ire from players who long for a 60 FPS mode, possibly at a lower 1080p resolution. On Wednesday, CD Projekt RED confirmed it's "looking into" raising the FPS cap for Xbox Series S.
This is by no means a confirmation that performance enhancements are inbound for Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series S, which is just as capable as its more powerful siblings besides a reduced GPU and memory. The Cyberpunk 2077 team is currently investigating the possibility of raising the framerate on Xbox Series S, ideally to 60 FPS.
Hopefully, we'll learn more in the near future as CDPR continues to explore options, as the Xbox Series S' limitation to 30 FPS remains one of the biggest complaints about the otherwise great Cyberpunk 2077 update. It's clear the Xbox Series S is more than capable of handling higher framerates in other games, all the way up to 120 FPS, even if its GPU often prevents it from reaching the lofty resolutions of the Series X or PS5.
Elsewhere, CD Projekt RED also confirmed they're working on fixes for the disc version of Cyberpunk 2077 not launching on PS4, and crashes on PC being caused by audio driver issues (which can potentially be temporarily mitigated by disabling said audio drivers). In a similar vein to implementing 60 FPS support on Xbox Series S, CDPR is also investigating the possibility of transferring trophies from PS4 to PS5, which is made more complicated by the way PS5 currently handles current-gen game upgrades.
In our Cyberpunk 2077 review, we praised the game for its immense and intricately detailed world and ambitious RPG experiences. This experience was unfortunately mired in endless glitches and bugs, especially on consoles. but the 1.5 update is the best Cyberpunk 2077 has ever been. With the release, Cyberpunk 2077 may join the list of best Xbox games for fans of RPGs looking for a brand-new world to explore.
An epic RPG.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the latest project from CD Projekt RED, the developer behind the Witcher 3. To follow up the game that defined a generation of gaming, Cyberpunk 2077 needed to be huge, ambitious, and captivating. Cyberpunk 2077 is far from perfect, but it is a monumental achievement in many aspects.
