Last month, CD Projekt RED confirmed that it'd be dropping "traditional" male and female gender options for Cyberpunk 2077's character creator in favour of "body types", and voice options that players could mix and match at their will. This was, according to CD Projekt RED at the time, an effort to stay true to the world of Cyberpunk, and to create an experience that feels cohesive and inclusive for all.
CD Projekt RED Senior Concept Artist Marthe Jonkers told Metro at the time that the studio wanted players to be able to feel free to create any kind of character they wanted, and that doing away with binary gender options was a way to that that still felt true to the ethos of Cyberpunk 2077. In a recent interview with n a recent interview with VGC, Level Designer Max Pears went into more detail about why CDPR made the call, and how the way your character has been created affects your playthrough.
"We really want to make sure players get the representation that they want," Pears said, echoing what Jonkers confirmed over the Summer. "In the genre of Cyberpunk as well, it asks such deep questions about what it means to be human, let alone what it means to define your gender."
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Pears also reiterated that the lack of binary gender options is actually "important to the lore of this world." As you'll probably know, Cyberpunk 2077 is set in a sci-fi future in which people can augment and change themselves, virtually at will. In such a future, it doesn't exactly make a ton of sense that its inhabitants would feel the need to limit themselves with labels like "male" and "female."
Instead then, you'll simply pick a body type from a variety of masculine and feminine options, and will do the same for your voice. If you were wondering, it seems that your character's genitals will be determined by the body type you choose, genitals that you will actually be able to see for yourself at various points during the game's sex scenes. It sounds as if CDPR has wisely also opted to sidestep gender pronouns, with NPCs instead simply referring to you as 'V' the majority of the time. That is, after all, the name of the character, and the one thing you can't actually change.
"One of the things we've done to make sure the game addresses things a certain way is a lot of the time NPCs are just going to refer to you as 'V', because you won't be able to choose your name," Pears said.
Featured Image Credit: CD ProjektTopics: Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red