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Cyberpunk 2077 Removes Gender Character Options For Greater Inclusivity

What better way to highlight the progress of humanity in the fictional setting of Cyberpunk 2077 than to completely remove the binary options of gender?

In earlier builds of the game, as seen in E3 2018, E3 2019 and Gamescom 2019, you had the option of making characters in Cyberpunk 2077 either male or female.

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However, that isn’t the case now; you now have the option to choose a feminine or a masculine body for the main protagonist, V, as well as pick a “male-sounding voice” or a “female-sounding voice”. This means you could potentially mix it up with a man using a woman’s voice, and vice versa.

The folks at CD Projekt Red have made it a point to do so in effort to make the game “really inclusive”, said the game’s Senior Concept Artist Marthe Jonkers.

“Of course, if you tackle certain subjects then you will expect people to have an opinion about it and we respect that,” said Jonkers, who spoke to Metro. “…our character creation menu, for instance, compared to the last demo we now give you so many more options. 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.”

Hints at this bold new direction in the RPG genre are already present in the theme of over-sexualising transsexuals, as seen in posters littered throughout the game, so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise for CDPR to have done so.

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Look at the middle poster.

Of course, one shouldn’t forget that this doesn’t affect your character mechanically any more than it does for making story decisions. As Jonker stated, you are free to play your Cyberpunk 2077 character in any way you please.

In any case, this should only serve to bring more people into the hype surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches on April 16, 2020 for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Google Stadia.

Oh, and do look out for their new public gameplay video at PAX West on August 30, while we’re at it.