Cyberpunk 2077’s Day One PS4 and Xbox One Versions Are a Bit Rough

CD Projekt Red’s latest RPG is officially out on both current-gen consoles and PC. While the streets of Night City can look pretty impressive on the latter, those booting Cyberpunk 2077 up on a base PlayStation 4 or Xbox One are treated to a different kind of graphical display.

Players who picked up the console version of Cyberpunk 2077 have been finding that, on the base versions of each current-gen console, things are a bit rough. On top of the existing bugs in Cyberpunk 2077, textures seem to take a while to load in, if ever. Graphics can seem blurry and muddy, making it difficult to make out details in the environment. Videos have been going up since the game launched of Cyberpunk’s current-gen performance.

It’s important to note that right now, Cyberpunk 2077 is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The PS4 and Xbox One versions are backward compatible on next-gen consoles though, and next-gen specific upgrades are expected further down the line. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X don’t seem to have the same problems; PlayStation Univese reports that while the PS5 version looks good, Cyberpunk 2077 on a launch model PlayStation 4 looks like an “absolute pile of trash.”

Over at Kotaku, Ethan Gach has both an Xbox Series X and an Xbox One, and the comparison is similarly unfavorable. The Series X handles Cyberpunk fine, but the older model Xbox can’t seem to keep up. “There I’ve had framerate drops, UI and texture pop-in, and an overall layer of fuzzy lighting and jagged reflections that made it hard not to feel like I was playing a PS3 or 360 game, or at least a modern one on ultra low graphics settings,” writes Gach.

It’s enough that, as with most kerfuffles in gaming, there are some pretty good jokes already being made about the state of current-gen Cyberpunk. I’m personally partial to the Hagrid meme version myself. It’s worth talking about seriously though, because for a number of players, this is the day-one experience they’re receiving.

It would be easy enough to blow this off by saying that Cyberpunk 2077 was “meant” to be played on next-gen consoles and PC, or that base console owners should be glad they can even play it. Yet Cyberpunk 2077 is a video game that came out for those consoles, not for next-gen; it’s selling for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on store shelves, so assessing how it plays on those systems—especially the lowest-common denominator among them—is important. Next-gen systems are dealing with supply issues, so even those with the means to might still be having trouble getting a new console. And so folks with those older systems will be grappling with whatever tech limitations exist, alongside Cyberpunk’s proclivity for goofy bugs.

There has already been a day-one patch for Cyberpunk 2077. It’s doubtless there will be even more as CD Projekt Red keeps addressing the game’s outstanding issues and anything else not caught by the crunch leading up to launch. Hopefully the base current-gen issues can get at least a little smoothed out for those who are still playing on older hardware.