CD Projekt Red warns of Cyberpunk 2077 blackmail

The Polish developer takes to Twitter to warn gamers of the attempted blackmail with, and impending leaks of, Cyberpunk 2077 documents.

If you follow CD Projekt Red – developer of The Witcher series – on Twitter, you’ll have seen an impassioned plea from them this evening, regarding some leaked documents.

The team have been contacted by an attempted blackmailer, who demanded payment of a ransom in order to keep the documents – early design documents for Cyberpunk 2077 – a secret. CD Projekt Red may be showing off some of their latest game at E3 2017, so the timing makes sense.

Sensibly, the developers have chosen not to comply.

First and foremost, if you pay a blackmailer, you’re not guaranteed that they will hold up their end of the bargain. Let’s be honest: you already know they’re a dishonest sort by their initial actions, so why would reneging on a blackmail deal be outside of their scope?

Secondly, they’ve attempted whatever damage limitation they can to get out ahead of the leaks, by pre-empting the dissemination of the information and advising gamers that the documents are outdated and no longer representative of Cyberpunk 2077. That takes the sting out of them somewhat, but people will still look. It’s human nature. The most powerful thing CD Projekt Red could do in this instance is to show the documents themselves and pull the rug out from under the blackmailers, but it’s likely they don’t know the full extent of what’s held, and may inadvertently give away more than the blackmailers actually have available to leak.

And thirdly, they’re contacting the authorities to report this crime.

Game development may be an incredibly leaky ship, and the early drop of screens and footage from unreleased games seems like commonplace, but blackmail is never acceptable.

Here’s the full notice on the Cyberpunk 2077 blackmail from CD Projekt Red, as seen on their Twitter: