CD Projekt Red has released Hotfix 1.21 for Cyberpunk 2077, with the patch concentrating primarily on glitches that could halt progress in the RPG's many unpolished quests. The Polish studio is also continuing to clean up general gameplay and stability issues, which have lingered since the product's dismal December 2020 launch despite numerous delays and studio crunch development.
Joint CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kicinski recently explained his and the studio's mindset to post-launch development, stating that there are no plans to abandon Cyberpunk 2077 anytime soon. The developer and publisher CD Projekt's reputations were severely marred by the game's state at launch, to the point that Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store shortly after launch. It remains unavailable for PS4 or PS5 owners, though it's still on sale for PC, Xbox, and Stadia. Despite a few updates, the game doesn't perform well on older PC and Xbox models - the Xbox One edition is sometimes considered unplayable.
The official Cyberpunk 2077 patch notes for Hotfix 1.21 identify fixes for several mainline quests, such as Spray Paint, Big in Japan, Play It Safe, Down on the Street, Riders on the Storm, Killing in the Name, Burning Desire/Night Moves, and Losing My Religion/Sacrum Profanum. For some of these bugged missions, there are multiple fixes per quest, as with Big in Japan or Down on the Street (each of which have had even more severe issues addressed in previous patches). Some of these bugs were potentially game-breaking, such as one in Play It Safe that black out the screen on connecting to the Access Point. Others were less (immediately) critical, like one in Down on the Street that could cause Oda to crash into the player's car if it was parked in the wrong spot.
Fixes for side missions target an assortment of Gigs, Reported Crimes, Cyberpsycho Sightings, and Suspected Organized Crime Activities. General issues resolved include being unable to climb ladders out of water, NCPD spawning behind a player's back if they commit a crime on a rooftop, and holocalls from Mitch getting stuck and repeating if they're interrupted. Cosmetically, CD Projekt has dealt with things like a cluttered scanning UI, Johnny Silverhand's appearance in some quests, and clipping issues with NPC clothes.
Hopefully, memory management tweaks should result in fewer crashes. Cyberpunk 2077 was left in a rough state even after the 1.2 patch, with people still documenting framerate drops, textures failing to load, and NPCs suddenly T-posing. It remains to be seen if performance issues have been smoothed out to any degree. In any event, many more patches should be incoming during 2021, including a "next-gen" upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S owners that's been delayed to late 2021.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PS4 (retail), Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia, and it will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2021.
Source: CD Projekt Red