Cyberpunk 2077's new Ukrainian translation is full of criticism for Russia's war - now the devs are apologizing for it

Developer CD Projekt Red has apologized to Russian players for a number of anti-Russian messages that were included in the new Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077.

A brand-new Ukrainian translation for the base game debuted ahead of the Phantom Liberty expansion as part Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update. Players soon discovered that this localization also added a number of references to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Rock Paper Shotgun has published some of the most notable examples, including an apparent reference to the "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" line that became infamous in 2022, a new bit of graffiti seemingly criticizing Russia's 2014 occupation of Crimea, and the name for a, er, squatting pose in photo mode being changed to "like a Russian."

The discovery of these messages quickly drew criticism from Russian players on places like the game's official forums. While CD Projekt has not publicly commented on the changes in this Ukrainian localization to English-speaking outlets or players, it has - as PC Gamer notes - apologized on its Russian social media channels and promised to remove the remarks in the game's next update.

"The Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077 contains several remarks that could offend some Russian players," the studio said (via Google Translate). "These remarks were not written by CD Projekt Red employees and do not represent our views. 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."

It's worth noting that CD Projekt has publicly been quite supportive of Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country. Last year, the company announced a major donation to the Polish Humanitarian Action charity in support of Ukrainian refugees. At the same time, CD Projekt announced that its PC game platform, GOG, would suspend sales in Russia and Belarus, saying that "the entire CD Projekt Group stands firm with the people of Ukraine."

Much of the games industry has rallied to support Ukraine, even including a charity bundle in World of Warcraft just a few months ago.