CD Projekt Red has announced a live-stream event that is going to be a big deal because it is going to feature the new official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game. The stream that is set for Wednesday, January 21st at 5:00 PM CET, will give the opportunity to witness the two hosts Lilayaah and Pawel Burza conversing with the WeirdCo Games development team and to experience the live gameplay of the game. This event is purely a card game affair, and the company has explicitly stated that no announcements regarding the video games will be made.
In other words, CDPR went all the way through the TCG market with a physical Cyberpunk card game, which is quite a staggering thought when one contemplates it. The tweet from the official CyberpunkGame account is indeed a buildup for this REDstreams episode, which guarantees an exhaustive scrutiny of cards and some live matches to show how it all works. They are working with WeirdCo Games, who presumably are the ones responsible for the mechanics and thus are the masterminds of the project. This is a fully dedicated stream which is indeed a nice move but at the same time, they had to put a P.S. like “Hey just so you know don’t get your hopes up for any Phantom Liberty DLC news or similar this is about the cards only.” It seems quite reasonable but you know gamers.
Game fans are already replying to the tweet with a variety of reactions, which can practically be seen as the mirror of what is going on in the internet. Some people are very excited about it. One of the users with the nickname Croquepeon simply tweeted a GIF of Keanu Reeves looking overjoyed with the caption “I am 2077% interested” that is very in tune with the mood. Another user, fpsmattyb, expressed that he was very surprised and even tweeted “There’s a trading card game!? 😱” along with a shocked face GIF. So, the curiosity is definitely there.
On the other hand, there are still very impatient people. A big number of comments are practically asking for the opposite. It is as though there is a choir of voices universally shouting “Give us VR!” One of the users shwardslol is whining, “Give us a VR version of Cyberpunk plz😭😭”. Another user, FutureVrking, came along: “Only if it comes with a free PSVR2 mode,” and later in the thread, HilgersMarco commented “I would pay 25 -30 for vr upgrade.” It’s a whole situation. Then there are patch requests like metacappa1 just stating, “Release more patches🙌🏻.” It is also hard not to notice the random demand from HexDrinker77 for Witcher 3 Switch 2 port, because why not.
The confusion even causes some weird side conversations to occur. One of the reply threads in Thai language seems to be a discourse on anime art styles and 3D modeling between users Bee 2 and Onagi Hanzo. Bee 2 appears to have a very high opinion of someone’s talent and is shouting it out very emotionally like, “And I truly admire your talent. Many people try but no one can do it as well as you.” This is totally off the topic but it is just… there, adding to the beautiful chaos of a Twitter thread.
Moreover, some users have doubts regarding the very card game project. One user KdeKercy wrote to someone a blunt list: “What we’ve got already: 1. It’s no standalone Gwent 2. It’s no TCG 3. it’s bad as a card game.” Ouch! Simultaneously, AYO Maestro made a broad statement, “People are waking up to see how dead this game is now,” which sounds quite harsh given the support the game is getting but, hey, to each his own. And chillwindman just dropped a thinking emoji with the phrases “Physical only” and “No video-game-related announcements are planned,” which somewhat echoes the sentiment of the perplexed/disappointed audience segment.
Hold on was I saying? Oh, right, the stream. So, it is going to take place this Wednesday. The hosts Lilayaah and Pawel Burza will be there, and that is an excellent duo for this kind of thing. They will discuss cards with the developers and then actually play the game live, which is the best way to determine if a TCG has longevity or if it is just a cash grab. The very fact that they are dedicating an entire stream for this indicates that at least CDPR and WeirdCo are not just quietly dropping it but are going to give it a full-blown launch.
This is a very intriguing strategy for the Cyberpunk 2077 brand. The game suffered a rough launch and then the redemption story with the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty has been nothing short of miraculous, they are still expanding the universe onto platforms like Xbox.
