How Cyberpunk 2077 is taking shape on Nintendo's Switch 2

An interview with CD Projekt RED about their first-ever console launch game

Cyberpunk 2077 on the Switch 2. Screenshot: CD Projekt RED

Cyberpunk 2077, the open-world adventure set in decadent Night City, is one of the biggest games of the last five years that does not yet run on a released Nintendo system. That’ll change soon. It’s a launch title for the Switch 2 on June 5.

How did development studio CD Projekt RED pull that off? What does it tell us about Switch 2’s performance compared to other game machines? And what are they doing with the Switch 2’s options for mouse controls?

I asked the folks at Cyberpunk development studio CD Projekt RED about all of this. Over email, I got some answers from one of the studio’s expert engineers, Tim Green.

First, some basics, confirmed by CDPR:

Content: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, as they’re calling it, contains the full original 2020 game, its many updates and the acclaimed 2023 expansion Phantom Liberty.

• The only needed downloads will be for extra language packs, as the game will ship in English (except in Japan, where it will ship in Japanese)

File size: The game is “roughly 64GB,” Green told Game File, physically and digitally. (Green: “The physical version is all played from the game card.”)

Specs: Per Green, “We are currently targeting 1080p resolution in TV quality mode, TV performance mode, and handheld quality mode—and targeting 720p performance in handheld performance mode.”

• The version of Cyberpunk that runs when the Switch 2 is docked for TV play offers more power, Green said, “but [the game] still utilizes Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) when players take it on the go.” DLSS is the proprietary tech from Nvidia (which made the Switch’s chips) for using AI/machine learning to render graphics at higher resolutions on the fly. “There are also specific optimizations for this mode like variable refresh rate (VRR) technology that allows for an experience that not just looks great but runs smoothly too,” Green added

A few weeks ago, at Nintendo’s Switch 2 showcase event in New York City, the head of tech at Hogwarts Legacy studio Avalanche Software told me they’d been working on the Switch 2 version of that game for “about a year.” The executive producer for Civilization VII said the Switch 2 version has been in the works since October.

CDPR’s Green wouldn’t give me a timeframe for how long they’ve been building Cyberpunk for Switch 2—”we can’t share exact numbers”—but recalled his colleagues’ reactions after first being briefed about the new machine by Nintendo.