Cyberpunk 2077 was just delayed out of a very busy April game release period, and it will now launch just before the new Xbox Series X and PS5 hit shelves. It’s shaping up to be one of the biggest games of the year, and according to veteran analyst Michael Pachter, it could break 15 million copies sold.
Answering a question on his show Pachter Factor regarding the best-selling games of 2020, Pachter — who Digital Trends previously interviewed for a feature on GameStop — said that Cyberpunk 2077 will likely sell around 15 million units total. This number could be higher, potentially up to 18 million units, but this would likely put it behind this year’s Call of Duty and FIFA installments.
“Can Cyberpunk topple FIFA or Call of Duty? Sure,” Pachter added. “If Cyberpunk gets a 97 [Metacritic] review score, it could sell 30 [million.]”
It will be interesting to see if the recent success of The Witcher on Netflix, and the resurgence in popularity for The Witcher III game, will translate into buzz for Cyberpunk 2077. It’s the first game CD Projekt Red has made outside of the Witcher universe, and was met with overwhelming acclaim upon its full reveal during E3 2019. Keanu Reeves’ surprise appearance certainly helped with that. Reeves will play a companion in the game, and was featured in its announcement trailer.
CD Projekt Red has also found itself in hot water recently, however, after CEO Adam Kiciński admitted that the development staff would have to “crunch” in order to release the game at its new date. This is despite claims CD Projekt Red previously saying that it had committed to avoiding crunch in 2019. The practice, which involves working upwards of 80 or even 100 hours in a week to complete a game’s development, has been heavily criticized in recent years, particularly after it was seemingly glorified by Rockstar Games in the lead-up to Red Dead Redemption II‘s launch.
Cyberpunk 2077 will launch on September 17 for Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Google Stadia. CD Projekt Red is not currently planning versions for the next-generation consoles. We anticipate that changing, although it may not happen by the time they launch.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.