Cyberpunk 2077 photo mode teased yet again, but how would it work in first-person?

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Capture some sci-fi dystopian memories

(Image credit: CD Projekt)

If you ever find time to play tourist during your travels through Night City, it looks like the game will oblige you with a Cyberpunk 2077 photo mode. Developer CD Projekt Red told a fan last year that it was "planning to have" photo mode, and a brief video posted to Cyberpunk 2077's official Twitter account today seems to hint that we'll learn more about it soon.

The video is a brief pan over the Night City skyline, its neon billboards and window-studded high rises shining out into the night sky. A stylized camera icon appears on the screen (though that symbol will probably be as meaningless as a floppy disc save icon in the future) and the video loops. The included hashtags "#CaptureCyberpunk" and "#PhotosFromNightCity" tease more to come. That is photos plural after all.

While photo mode has become a near-standard inclusion for many big-budget games, making it work with Cyberpunk 2077's dedicated first-person perspective will require some interesting decisions from CD Projekt Red. People love taking pictures of their characters - especially when they can customize them, as Cyberpunk 2077's character creator will allow - but in normal play you won't see much more than your hands and arms. If photo mode lets you pull back and look at your character at any point in the game, that would create a whole lot of extra animation work that CD Projekt Red would have to do for a fairly small portion of the game.

On the other hand, if a traditional Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer mode comes to the game after launch, CDPR would need all of those animations for player characters eventually. Having all those third-person animations ready to go would be future-proofing with an extra benefit in the near term. Or maybe V will just wink out of existence whenever you get ready to frame a shot, I dunno! I trust the developers to make the best choices with the resources and tools they have, and I'll be interested to see whatever form Cyberpunk 2077 photo mode takes.

Read about how the developers are working to give each neighborhood of Cyberpunk 2077 "its very own atmosphere and vibe". 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.