Cyberpunk 2077 now officially supports modding, a feature players have been waiting for since the game’s launch. The rich, open world of Night City has already been infused with different mods since then as players and modders put actions behind their ideas, but not every mod has been permitted. CD Projekt Red has already struck down a mod that would let players have sex with Johnny Silverhand, the pivotal Cyberpunk 2077 character played by Keanu Reeves.
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The inevitable sex mod in question was created by Catmino and was hosted on Nexus Mods as most mods are. By using this mod, players were able to swap in different models when interacting with the sex workers throughout Night City known as the “joytoys.” One of the options gave people the chance to swap in Johnny Silverhand’s file, but that was a bit too far for CD Projekt Red.
In a statement shared with Eurogamer, the Cyberpunk 2077 developer stressed its policy towards user-generated content that requires anything people create – particularly mods – can’t be considered harmful.
Our most important rule regarding user-generated content, game mods in particular, is that it can’t be harmful towards others,” CD Projekt Red said. “In the case of model swaps, especially those that involve explicit situations, it can be perceived as such by the people who lent us their appearance for the purpose of creating characters in Cyberpunk 2077.”
Continuing, CD Projekt Red said people were free to have fun with the characters the developer invented, but those who bear the likeness of people who were “asked to participate in the game” shouldn’t be used in compromising situations unless permission is obtained.
“Therefore, when making fan content, creators have to make sure they’ve got permission from all the concerned parties (which might be people other than CD Projekt Red),” the developer said. “For the characters we’ve invented for the game, we broadly permit you to tweak the game at will and just have fun. When it comes to models of real people whom we’ve asked to participate in the game, we kindly ask you to refrain from using them in any situation that might be found offensive if you don’t have their explicit permission.”
It’s an interesting modding situation that intersects with the increasingly popular idea of using the likenesses of real-world talents in-game. Cyberpunk 2077 has no shortage of these sorts of guest characters, so there are likely others who will be off limits as well.
