The developer of Cyberpunk 2077 is adding warnings to the game, after reviewers and charities complained it caused epileptic seizures.
It thanked one reviewer who said it had triggered “one major seizure” and left them “close” to another several times.
“Regarding a more permanent solution, [the] dev team is currently exploring that and will be implementing it as soon as possible,” it tweeted.
The game is released on Thursday, after months of repeated delays.
⚠ The #Cyberpunk2077 story features rapid red and white blinking lights and other animations that could cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy ⚠@CDPROJEKTRED @cyberpunkgame these features are unsafe and should have been avoided to make the game more accessible pic.twitter.com/SFExxVEZXn
— Epilepsy Action (@epilepsyaction) December 8, 2020
What is the problem?
Video games have long been a potential trigger for those who have epileptic seizures and standard warnings have been written in to licence agreements over the years.
Writing an extensive and widely shared safety advisory for GameInformer, Liana Ruppert said she often had seizures and was careful about what she chose to play but Cyberpunk 2077 had been particularly difficult.
Thank you for bringing this up. We’re working on adding a separate warning in the game, aside from the one that exists in the EULA (https://t.co/eXpPn73VSK). Regarding a more permanent solution, Dev team is currently exploring that and will be implementing it as soon as possible. https://t.co/lXFypnSit2
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 8, 2020
Part of the problem is the frequent use of flashing lights and flickering animations – a common trigger for seizures – in the game’s neon-future aesthetic.
“Cyberpunk 2077 is about hedonistic excess,” Ruppert wrote.
“Everything is brighter, louder, and more in your face.
