Nintendo Switch Cyberpunk 2077: Portable Edition details leaked
A very unexpected leak has emerged in the late hours of the day today that has caught both games journalists, gamers, Gamer Professionals and the industry at large by complete surprise. The existence of an exclusive version of CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 for the Nintendo Switch has emerged, titled "Cyberpunk 2077: Portable Edition". A handful of screenshots of the port running on actual Nintendo Switch hardware have leaked along with details regarding gameplay, performance, download size and a potential release date. Although anonymous, it is widely believed the leak originated from a disgruntled Gamer Professional who formerly worked for CD Projekt Red in some capacity.
It is suggested that the game currently runs at a dynamic sub HD 480p resolution and a capped "cinematic" 24 frames per second framerate when docked with a potentially lower resolution and framerate when running undocked. The games development is at near gold complete status with a potential release date of summer 2021. The download size of the game has been hinted at 85gb with an extra 10gb of data being pulled from the actual physical game cartridge. It is currently believed there will be no eshop version of Cyberpunk Portable Edition, you will need both the physical cartridge and the full download to play. This may be a form of DRM to protect the title from piracy, it may also be a method to get such an ambitious title working on the Nintendo Switch's feeble hardware. It has not been confirmed however how much of Cyberpunks PC and console experience will actually make it to the portable edition, with current rumours that only 50% of the games content will be available at launch. Possible future patches have not been ruled out later to add any missing content however.
In a attached statement the Gamer Professional who leaked the existence of the port along with the pictures and details stated:
"It is crazy how much development time and effort was invested getting Cyberpunk ported to a system that is less powerful than most budget phones. Developing this game for the switch resulted in less bug testing and optimization of Cyberpunk for the PS4 and Xbox One and also the PC. A large reason why we are seeing patches coming out for Cyberpunk for these systems now is that development of Cyberpunk Portable is almost done and is winding down, so we can refocus our efforts on the systems that actually have the capability to run Cyberpunk well once fully patched and optimised!"
We will keep updated with further information as it breaks on this story.