Cyberpunk 2077 Reportedly Ditches Gender in Character Creation

There is still quite some time to go before CD Projekt Red's highly anticipated futuristic RPG is released, but with the launch date being disclosed, the devs have been more open than ever about what to expect. Even before this year's gameplay demo was revealed behind closed doors, the team had mentioned that a lot has been changed. Following the display of that same demo at Gamescom, it was once again noted that things have changed, especially when it comes to creating a character. This, of course, comes after Cyberpunk 2077 was criticized for limiting players to selecting between male and female characters, despite the genre typically promoting more progressive views.

Speaking with Metro, senior concept artist Marthe Jonkers discussed several topics, including how Cyberpunk 2077 players will not have to decide on a gender when they create their characters. "And our character creation menu, for instance, compared to the last demo we now give you so many more options," Jonkers said. "For instance, you don't choose your gender anymore. You don't choose, 'I want to be a female or male character' you now choose a body type. Because we want you to feel free to create any character you want.

"So you choose your body type and we have two voices, one that's male sounding, one is female sounding. You can mix and match. You can just connect them any way you want. And then we have a lot of extra skin tones and tattoos and hairstyles. So we really want to give people the freedom to make their own character and play the way they want to play."

As stated above, the cyberpunk genre, and generally science fiction as a whole, has seemingly always incorporated inclusivity. When CD Projekt Red came under fire for their portrayal of gender and trans issues, that's when they realized they had to do better and make the changes detailed above. "You know, we really want to make a video game that's really inclusive," Jonkers said.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be arriving on April 16, 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. For even more on the upcoming RPG, including the latest batch of screenshots, check out some of our previous coverage.

What do you think about all of this? Are you glad that the Cyberpunk 2077 devs chose to remove the gender options while creating a character? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!

[H/t VG24/7]