Contrary to what CD Projekt Red has claimed in the past, Keanu Reeves has never played Cyberpunk 2077. The big-name Hollywood star and internet darling famously lent his voice and physical likeness to CDPR’s futuristic RPG as Johnny Silverhand, an anti-establishment rockstar whose neural engrams serve as a sort of reluctant advisor to main protagonist V throughout their journey in Night City. Johnny is a fairly popular character, so much so that players have even gone as far as to romance him in Cyberpunk 2077 fan mods - something that Keanu Reeves himself is oddly enthusiastic about.

Naturally, having an A-list celebrity like Keanu Reeves involved in the game was a big part of Cyberpunk 2077’s pre-release promotions and marketing, beginning when he first took the stage to announce the game’s initially-planned release date of April 2020 at E3 2019. CDPR would delay Cyberpunk 2077 a couple of times following this, leading to the game eventually hitting store shelves last December. In the run-up to Cyberpunk 2077’s release, the developer continued to drive excitement for Reeves' association with the game, with CDPR CEO Adam Kiciński claiming that Keanu Reeves had played Cyberpunk 2077 and enjoyed it.

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Keanu Reeves and his The Matrix Resurrections co-star Carrie-Anne Moss recently sat down for an interview with The Verge (via TheGamer), following their guest appearance at The Game Awards 2021. When asked if he’d ever played any video games in the past, Keanu revealed that he hasn’t - not even the ones he’s been featured in like Cyberpunk 2077 or the recently released The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo. Fans on social media platforms like Reddit were quick to notice this contradiction to Adam Kiciński’s claims last year, which gave the impression that Reeves had at least played through part of Cyberpunk 2077, rather than just watching a demonstration like the actor himself stated during his interview.

This apparent mishap of communication is far from the only controversy surrounding Cyberpunk 2077. When the game first launched last winter, players were greeted with a multitude of game-breaking bugs and glitches, enough to necessitate a massive Day One patch just to get Cyberpunk 2077 into a functional state. In the many months since then, CDPR has worked to address most of these issues with a series of update patches, an effort that was recently rewarded when Steam users gave Cyberpunk 2077 an overwhelming wave of positive reviews during last month’s Steam Autumn Sale. The game is expected to see renewed interest from players when its new-generation upgrades release in 2022.

It's possible that CD Projekt Red's CEO Adam Kiciński may have gotten some wires crossed when sharing last year that Reeves was enjoying his time with the game. Perhaps Keanu Reeves watched and reacted to a demonstration of Cyberpunk 2077, with the CEO taking this to mean that he had actually played through a portion of the game himself. Based on the actor's comments in the interview, Keanu Reeves has also yet to play through and experience through the brief The Matrix Awakens tech demo either, but some fans still appreciate that such a top-tier talent is willing to bring awareness to the gaming medium by appearing in titles like Cyberpunk 2077.

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Source: The Verge/YouTube (via The Gamer)