Every game has cut content. Some, like Cyberpunk 2077, might have more cut content than others. But we shouldn’t expect cut content to eventually find its way into the game later. As noted in a recent Twitch stream by CD Projekt Red quest director Paweł Sasko, there’s a reason why certain content gets cut.
During a recent Twitch livestream (via PCGamesN), Sasko was asked by a fan how to respectfully present cut content so as not to suggest it was somehow better than what was actually released. Sasko made a face at the odd suggestion and then explained why content gets cut in the first place.
"Always, unused content is unused for a reason," Sasko said. "When you’re actually making the game, your responsibility as a designer is to make all of those calls about what actually gets into your game. That is your responsibility.
"When stuff is weak, when the quality is not there ... you can see that there’s no way to bring it up to [the same quality as] the nine out of ten quests, or locations, or gameplay features, or anything like this. It's our responsibility as designers to be able to say 'This is not good enough' or 'This is good enough.'
"I think it’s really important to remember this, if something is unused, it's really unused for a reason."
Cyberpunk 2077 had quite a rough launch, and one could argue that some of the content that made it into the final game was on the verge of not making the cut. Only years of updates and patches has Cyberpunk become an excellent game, but it's also evolved far from what its original designers intended.
There were a ton of features and ideas that never made it into the final game. During the first gameplay demo, players could choose a childhood hero and critical life events to fill out their backstory. Hacking and netrunning were supposed to be much deeper than the simple point-and-hack system Cyberpunk currently has. And NPCs were supposed to have unique routines and could be invited back to V's place for "conversation." Many of these features were present in earlier iterations of Cyberpunk 2077, but were ultimately cut.
Another feature that was cut was Night City's metro system, and it's not coming back. In response to rumors that CD Projekt Red was planning to add a massive subway system to Cyberpunk, community director Marcin Momot confirmed that "nothing has changed regarding the metro system" and CDPR does "not plan on adding it in the future."
While cut content might not return, that doesn't mean Cyberpunk won't receive yet more upgrades. CD Projekt Red and Nvidia recently showed off Cyberpunk's upcoming "Ray Tracing Overdrive Mode" coming next week that gives the game full path tracing that essentially replicates real-life light. Phantom Liberty is also on the way, but we won't have more news on that expansion until June.