CD Projekt Red has apologized for a Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update featuring anti-Russian dialogue and graffiti and says it will remove them in the next update.
As PC Gamer notes, the offending elements were added as part of a Ukrainian localization of the game completed by SBT Localization. Initially reported by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the dialog references the Russian invasion of Ukraine and changes original police dialog from "Couldn't all these assholes bite it out in the Badlands" to "Couldn't all this rusnia bite it out in the Badlands?"
Rusnia is a new word coined by Ukrainians after the 2014 uprising, according to Ukrainian writer Stas Olenchenko, who argued in January that it "doesn’t have any weight of history or systemic oppression behind it — unlike most of actual ethnic slurs."
Further dialog has been changed in the Ukrainian version of the game, which references Ukraine's response to Russia’s demands that Snake Island be surrendered. The in-game dialog reads: "Go f*ck yourself in the same direction as the ship did."
The final piece of graffiti in Cyberpunk 2077 shows the Ukrainian coat of arms alongside a symbol that represents the Crimean Tatars. This, as Rock, Paper, Shotgun notes, would suggest that in Cyberpunk 2077’s world, Crimea is part of Ukraine. (Russia says otherwise, though the official US stance is that Crimea is Ukraine.)
Though CD Projekt Red and other studios pledged support for Ukraine following the 2022 invasion, it says it had nothing to do with the in-game messages.
"The Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077 contains several remarks that could offend some Russian players. These remarks were not written by CD Projekt Red employees and do not represent our views," the studio said in a translated statement. "We are working to fix them and replace them in the next update. We apologize for this situation and are taking steps to ensure it does not happen again."
