Cyberpunk 2077 PSA points out several epileptic triggers

Cyberpunk 2077 reviews officially went live last night and there has been plenty of discussion about the game and its content on social media since then. One of the issues raised is a warning to those who suffer from seizures, as one mechanic the game contains a combination of blinking lights that are often used by doctors to trigger seizures for diagnoses purposes. 

Following on from reviews of Cyberpunk 2077 going live, Game Informer published a PSA, explaining that this game will be particularly challenging for gamers with epilepsy. The biggest trigger seems to come from the ‘braindance' mechanic, in which your in-game player puts on a headset to interface with someone else's memories. As the animation to put the headset on starts, you are met with blinking red and white LEDs, a technique typically used by doctors to cause a seizure for diagnoses purposes.

Given that this is a Cyberpunk game, there are other triggers to be aware of as there are lots of brightly coloured lights and scenes of flashing throughout. Game Informer reporter, Liana Ruppert, was affected by several moments in the game, including the Braindance scene, which did trigger a seizure. If you are prone to seizures, then we highly recommend reading her full PSA, HERE.

This has all led to calls for CD Projekt Red to implement additional accessibility features to combat this. The studio has not commented on this just yet, but with the amount of discussion surrounding this on social media, it will need to be addressed sometime this week.

KitGuru Says: Platform holders like Microsoft/Xbox and multiple big game studios have been paying extra attention to accessibility over the last couple of years, so there will be plenty of pressure on CD Projekt Red to implement something here to combat this. Hopefully some fixes aren't too far off. 

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