Here’s How Much Cyberpunk 2077 Has Earned So Far
CD Projekt’s RPG Cyberpunk 2077 got off to a challenging start in 2020 due to its many issues, but the game has rebounded since then and has now brought in more than 3 billion zloty ($752 million USD) since release. CD Projekt disclosed this in its latest earnings briefing.
A graph shows that Cyberpunk 2077’s best year was 2020, when it earned $1.4 billion zloty ($351 million USD). Sales dropped off in 2021, but improved in 2022 and again in 2023. It’s worth noting, too, that despite the game’s issues, Cyberpunk 2077 sold 13 million copies right out of the gate in December 2020 to quickly become one of the best-selling RPGs in history. Thousands of people got refunds, but the game still started with a bang from a commercial perspective, and CD Projekt’s executives were rewarded with big bonuses.
Of note, the 3 billion zloty figure includes sales of the game and its Phantom Liberty expansion. Like other studios, CD Projekt does not disclose game or marketing budgets. So while $750 million in sales sounds like a lot, there is no way to know how profitable the game is without accounting for what it cost to develop and market. Given that the game was in development for a very long time, it’s a safe assumption that it carried a substantial development cost. Not only that, but CD Projekt’s effort to turn things around after launch surely carried a not-insignificant cost.
What we do know is Cyberpunk 2077 sold more than 25 million copies and its Phantom Liberty expansion shifted more than 4.3 million copies as of the end of 2023.
For context, 2023’s best-selling game, Hogwarts Legacy, made more than $850 million in just two weeks. 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II needed just 10 days on the market to cross $1 billion in revenue. Grand Theft Auto V, meanwhile, made $1 billion in three days.
After its buggy launch, CD Projekt vowed to continually update, support, and improve the game to help get it into a better state. The company has done just that, and many said the 2.0 release at the end of 2023 marked a new era for the game and helped bring in new players.
An ultimate edition of Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2023, featuring the base game and the Phantom Liberty expansion.
Given the huge success of Cyberpunk 2077, it’s no surprise that CD Projekt is now working on a sequel at its new office in Boston. This game, codenamed Orion, remains in the “concept” phase and is not expected to debut anytime soon.
Beyond the game, CD Projekt has partnered with Anonymous Content to create a live-action Cyberpunk project. Anonymous Content has an impressive track record–the studio produced Oscar-winning films like The Revenant and Spotlight, and has also succeeded in the television industry, helping to create popular series like Mr. Robot and True Detective.
TMNT Graphic Novel Crossover With Stranger Things Gets 40% Preorder Discount
The kids from Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things are used to being in the presence of unbelievable beings, so they are probably better equipped to deal with the realization that crime-fighting, talking turtles roam the sewers of New York City. For the rest of us, a Stranger Things crossover with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles likely sounds a bit, well, strange. And yet, that’s exactly what happened in last year’s comic miniseries. If you didn’t check out the cool crossover last year, you’ll be happy to learn that all four issues have been collected and reprinted in a new trade paperback. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Stranger Things releases April 23 and is available to preorder for $12.41 at Amazon, which is nearly a 40% discount off the book’s $20 list price.
The collected issues feature some fantastic art from Fero Pe and Sofie Dogson, while Cameron Chittock’s story sets the events of this story between the second and third seasons of Stranger Things.
“Eleven, Max, Dustin, Mike, Will, and Lucas are looking forward to a nonthreatening, fun-filled trip to New York City,” the plot synopsis reads. “With the gang hundreds of miles from the otherworldly weirdness of their hometown, they’re sure to catch a break this time–or at least that’s what they think until they encounter a threat both bizarre and familiar. To face that threat, they must unite with a fearsome fighting team every bit as bizarre…but green!”
The last couple of years has been a renaissance period for the TMNT franchise, as the IP has received excellent animated shows and comic book series. IDW’s main TMNT series has dozens of issues available to read–conveniently collected into several trade paperbacks–and the Turtles have crossed over with several other hot properties. Right now, you can pick up some fun adventures starring the quartet as they cross paths with Batman, Street Fighter, and even the Ghostbusters.
For some more great reading, you can also check out The Last Ronin and its Lost Years tie-in, a gritty director’s cut of the miniseries, and an ultimate collection reprint of the original TMNT comic books.
Marvel Rivals: How To Sign Up For The Hero Shooter’s Alpha Test
Marvel Rivals, a newly announced 6v6 hero shooter starring iconic comic book heroes and villains, will host its first playtest in May, and those interested in putting Marvel’s take on Overwatch through its paces can now sign up for a chance to play.
The playtest will be on PC, and players will have access to more than a dozen characters to choose from, including Black Panther, Spider-Man, Magneto, and Scarlet Witch. To sign up, players will need to fill out a registration form and answer questions like what genres they are currently playing the most, their favorite PvP shooters, and how familiar they are with Marvel comics, movies, and shows. Developer NetEase states the focus of the alpha will be to test out game mechanics, identity and resolve bugs, and gather feedback from players. Invites to the playtest will go out via email.
Judging from Marvel Rivals’ first gameplay trailer, those familiar with Blizzard’s Overwatch should feel right at home, though there are a few key differences between the two. For starters, Marvel Rivals is played in third-person rather than first-person. Additionally, the maps where the game’s heroes and villains do battle are at least partially destructible, which should change the flow of battle from one match to the next. Characters on the same team that have close ties to one another, like Rocket Racoon and Groot, for example, can join together for special Team-Up skills, which should add an interesting wrinkle when forming a team.
In true comic book fashion, the game’s story revolves around Doctor Doom and his 2099 counterpart forcing the Marvel multiverse to collide via Timestream Entanglement, with heroes and villains joining forces to prevent the Dooms from achieving their nefarious goals. It’s all a nice way to explain the game’s roster of characters, many of which are former enemies. For a full breakdown, here’s every Marvel Rivals character we know of so far.
Marvel Rivals will be free-to-play, and so far there is no word on whether or not the title will be coming to consoles or when it will release in full. The game can currently be wishlisted on both Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 – How To Complete Till Death Do Us Part
Some quests in Dragon’s Dogma 2 take you to far-flung regions. Still, there’s one in particular that leads you to an area that’s crawling with the undead. Our guide discusses how to complete Till Death Do Us Part in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Likewise, please be reminded that this article contains minor spoilers.
How to complete Till Death Do Us Part in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Till Death Do Us Part is a side quest that comes from an NPC in the capital city of Vernworth. First, you’ll have to talk to an NPC named Oswald, who usually strolls around near the fountain. He’ll tell you about a tyrannical fella named Ser Ludolph.
Next, speak with a woman named Margit, who’s in front of the Watchhead’s Home. Don’t worry–she’s not the Margit that you’re thinking of, so no “fell omen” would occur.
Margit claims that Ser Ludolph has been visiting her home often since her husband, Ser Gregor, was tasked to go to the Illdoers’ Resting Place. She then realizes Ludolph’s nefarious plot and implores you to save her husband.
How to go to the Misty Marshes
To complete the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Till Death Do Us Part quest, you must go to the Misty Marshes. There are three ways to get there.
From Harve Village: If you’ve only been exploring the northern part of the world map, you can follow the roads that lead north of Harve Village. Then, go across the stone bridge to the west. A narrow path takes you to a section that’s shrouded in a dark fog.
From Checkpoint Rest Town/Ancient Battleground: The second method has you following the path east of the Ancient Battleground (which is also close to where you meet the Sphinx). The gate that leads north is barred, but you can climb on rock formations or the Cenotaph’s ramparts to bypass it. You should be able to destroy the wooden plank to unlock the gate once you’re behind it.
From the Sphinx Mountain Shrine: The third option is for those who are already tackling the Sphinx’s riddles at the Mountain Shrine (note that you should have a Portcrystal placed at the Mountain Shrine for fast travel purposes). Turn around at the steps and you should see a campsite. From that spot, there’s a narrow pass that takes you to an abandoned village close to the Illdoers’ Resting Place.
Exploring the Misty Marshes to reach the Illdoers’ Resting Place
If you picked the first two options, you’ll find yourself in a wide area that’s completely covered in fog. Not only is visibility low, but you’ll also have to contend with Bandits, Skeleton Warriors, Zombies, and Phantoms–yes, the undead will spawn regardless of the time of day. The minimap also won’t show you the roads, so you’ll need to rely on torches/braziers to light the way.
Your goal is to reach the abandoned village, which has a campsite and a Riftstone. If you look slightly to the east, you should see a small island in the middle of the lake. There, you’ll find Ser Gregor and his troops battling a creature known as the Dullahan, also known as the Headless Horseman.
Note: If you follow the braziers going to the south, you’ll eventually reach a Griffin’s nest. Defeat the beast and pick up an extremely rare reusable Portcrystal.
How to defeat the Dullahan and rescue Ser Gregor
The Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dullahan is a monster boss, and it’s also fairly rare. In fact, the creature you face as part of this quest is the only one we encountered in our playthrough.
The Dullahan uses its scythe to carve up foes. Moreover, its disembodied head can call on lost souls that fly toward its opponents. Likewise, it can “Force Choke” characters, then toss them away like nothing. It even teleports periodically.
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this battle is that Ser Gregor can die permanently. This occurs if the Dullahan does any of its knockback attacks and Ser Gregor is thrown into the lake. The quest log will even tell you that you failed to save him. As such, we suggest battling the Dullahan close to the center of the island. If it goes near the lake, you might want to pick up and carry Gregor away from it just to be safe.
In any case, there are two ways to successfully complete the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Till Death Do Us Part quest:
- Make the Dullahan teleport away – If the Dullahan has taken enough damage, it will enrage. Its spectral head will attach to its body, and it will periodically shriek and cause characters to collapse. If you’re unable to deal a lot of damage to it within a minute or so, it will teleport and escape.
- Defeat the Dullahan – Of course, if you can manage to defeat it, then it will drop 300 RC, as well as several Cursed Dullahan Bone materials. You’ll also receive the “Before Dawn Breaks” achievement.
Till Death Do Us Part rewards
Regardless of what happens to the Dullahan, you should return to Margit in Vernworth. If you managed to save Ser Gregor, you’ll receive 2,800 XP, 5,000 gold, the Steeled Virtue (sword), and the Lustrous Targe (shield). Likewise, you’ll learn of how Ser Ludolph met a fitting end.
However, if Ser Gregor perished in the battle, you won’t receive the Lustrous Targe at all, and Margit will feel distraught at her husband’s death.
In any case, this is everything you need to know about the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Till Death Do Us Part quest and Dullahan boss fight. To learn about other terrifying foes, you can check our monster bosses guide.
Fierce foes and loyal companions await you as you journey onward in Dragon’s Dogma 2. For other tips and strategies, you can visit our guides hub.
Scream 6 Directors Say Leaving Franchise Wasn’t Their Choice
It’s been a season of turmoil for the Scream franchise. Earlier this month, Neve Campbell confirmed that she will star in Scream 7, which will be directed by Kevin Williamson, the screenwriter who created the franchise and produced the six previous films. That followed the news that director Christopher Landon left Scream 7 in December after his star, Melissa Barrera, was fired from the franchise in November. And it turns out that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett–who collectively go by Radio Silence–were also forced to step down as directors of the franchise’s next chapter.
While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Radio Silence said that their intention was to finish a trilogy of Scream movies featuring Barrera and Jenna Ortega’s Sam and Tara Carpenter. However, Spyglass’ demanding schedule for Scream 7 ultimately meant that they couldn’t helm their new horror movie, Abigail, and close out their third film in the franchise.
“We got exited,” noted Gillett. “We’ll be sad that there’s not going to be an end to the Sam Carpenter story, but in our minds, we designed Scream VI so that the story feels complete,” added Bettinelli-Olpin.
Barrera’s exit from the franchise came over her posts on social media about the war in Gaza, which Spyglass characterized as antisemitic. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that Barrera’s co-star, Ortega, had already left Scream 7 over filming conflicts with Wednesday Season 2. Barrera is starring in Abigail, which will hit theaters next month. And she isn’t entirely ruling out a return to the Scream franchise down the line.
“I’ve learned to never say never, but also a lot of things would have to happen for Sam to come back,” said Barrera. “For now, next page, next chapter, and then we’ll see what the future holds.”
Kristen Stewart Would Have Made Twilight’s Bella Break Up With Edward Immediately
It’s almost been 20 years since the first Twilight book by Stephenie Meyer hit bookshelves. The film series that adapted the story of Bella Swan and the macabre love triangle became worldwide hits and forever added “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” into our vocabulary.
Despite the vitriol the series got from critics, nobody was probably more aware of how ill-written the series was than stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart who played Edward and Bella throughout the films. Pattinson notoriously sliced the films apart while on the DVD commentary and even now Stewart wishes she could have saved Bella from her vampire lover.
On a recent episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, Stewart says she’s over the character but has plenty of love for Bella. Host Amanda Hirsch presented how she saw that Bella was too desperate to be with Edward, but Stewart wasn’t having any of it.
“Yeah, but, he was trying to sort of control whether or not she made choices for herself,” Stewart argued (via Deadline). “I would have broken up with him immediately.”
Stewart added how she knows exactly when she would have broken things off. “I mean, if I was like, ‘Hey, I want to try that,’ and he was like, ‘No, this is just for me,’ I would be like, ‘Well, this is also just for me. My whole life. Without you.'”
Playing Bella launched Stewart as a household name and was named the highest-paid actress in 2012 after her turn in Snow White and the Huntsmen.
Helldivers 2 Just Got Two New Stratagems, And One Is A Giant Laser Cannon
Helldivers 2 just received two new stratagems for players to employ against the enemies of managed democracy, and they look to pack quite a punch.
The two stratagems are support weapons: the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun and the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon. Both weapons have a three-second call-in time by default and a 480-second cooldown timer on call-ins, but can technically be called into battle as many times during a mission as needed (as long as they aren’t on cooldown). The Heavy Machine Gun costs 6,000 Requisition to unlock while the Quasar Cannon costs 7,500.
Helldivers, support has arrived! The LAS-99 Quasar Cannon and the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun are available now for use against the Automaton horde. pic.twitter.com/EZSzXJWSPn
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 28, 2024
In-game, the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun is described as a “very powerful but difficult-to-wield” weapon, and joins the ranks of two other similar weapons, the Machine Gun and the Stalwart. It’s the Quasar Cannon that definitely looks to be the more interesting of the two, as it’s a massive shoulder-mounted weapon that after a charge-up time “fires a powerful, explosive energy burst” but features a long cooldown before it can be fired again. The Quasar Cannon looks to be particularly useful against the heavily armored Automatons, and is even capable of shooting Automaton dropships out of the sky.
Developer Arrowhead Studios has continued to keep Helldivers 2 fresh with the introduction of new Major Orders, Stratagems, and weapons following the game’s launch in early February 2024. Players recently unlocked pilotable mechs after liberating important factories from the Automaton threat, and some players are convinced that the arrival of a third enemy faction is imminent. Arrowhead recently introduced the new Cutting Edge Warbond (battle pass) to the game, which features new weapons, armor, and cosmetics for players to earn.
Helldivers 2 was the best-selling game of February in the US, dethroning Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, according to Circana. It has continually been among the top-selling and top-played games on Steam since launch, making it the biggest launch ever for a Sony-published game on PC. In GameSpot’s Helldivers 2 review, we said Arrowhead’s shooter manages to carve out a space for itself in a crowded live-service landscape thanks to its “fun narrative tone, punchy combat, intense firefights, and rewarding progression track,” calling it “just a really good time.”
One Of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Scariest Parts Is Easily Overlooked
In my The Texas Chain Saw Massacre review, I called it one of the scariest games I’ve ever played. I’ve since put over 100 hours into the game, and that remains true to this day. A horror game can rarely be affecting for that long. Usually, exposure should desensitize you to even the genre’s all-time greats. But the unpredictable nature of the PvP game makes each round feel like a new horror story unfolding around me.
Beyond the famous family and their taunting dialogue, the maps arranged like dizzying death traps, and the final girl (or guy) music that pulsates like an encroaching cacophony of violence, there’s another layer that adds to the haunting atmosphere of the game–but it’s easily missed. At the start of each round, brief excerpts of radio broadcasts can be heard. These range from seemingly innocuous baseball recaps to reports of murder and mayhem alluding to the game’s playable cabal of killers. GameSpot recently spoke to Gun Media creative director Ronnie Hobbs about why and how the Texas Chain Saw Massacre news feed came to be, and how giving the game a sense of place creates a terrifying reality for the players.
“I think there was one point in development where we wanted the initial radio broadcast, the one talking about Maria Flores, to play. So for a while, that’s the only one we had.” Hobbs told me. “It talks about her disappearance, just to set the tone for the match as you load in. And even though you only hear like 10 seconds of it, it grounded the game in reality. And then when we heard it, we were like, ‘Wow, okay, this is actually really cool.’ And we’re like, ‘This is so cool that we should fill it in with other things.’ We just didn’t know what those were. So that was really how it got started. Myself and my assistant, Rob Fox, wrote these. Once we figured out that we wanted more of those, he and I started down the journey of doing that.”
Hobbs said the team, and even he alone at times, went to Texas while doing research for the game, visiting “100 different small towns” and sleeping in his SUV to get a better sense of the setting. The team would stumble upon odd shops selling artwork for thousands of dollars in the middle of the desert, talk their way into a mill for a tour–which would go on to inspire today’s new map in the game–and chat with locals to learn the backstories of these places that aren’t often notable enough to appear on maps. Many of these encounters inspired broadcasts in the game, like one that speaks of the Marfa Ghost Lights in Marfa, Texas, a decades-old phenomenon that some locals attribute to aliens.
Since I’ve played so much TCM, I’ve become familiar with many of the broadcasts, and I’ve loved how they come in a few flavors. There are 29 news report broadcasts in the game according to the full list Hobbs provided me, each of them delivered in an authentic Kronkite-like style that suits the game’s 1970s setting. While some hint at other unseen crimes of the family–Hobbs confirmed with me that Sissy is the “Terror of I-40” you can hear about at the start of some rounds–others feel so out of place that it’s their juxtaposition that winds up being most haunting.
A round of TCM can be nauseatingly scary when you’re facing an adept group of killers. To sit through the introduction of a match featuring the grotesque kill room and other torturous setups to the tune of the Texas Rangers’ roster acquisitions has the unexpected effect of making it all worse. There’s a world beyond the oppressive maps on which the game is played, and sometimes it’s the blissful ignorance of that world that haunts me–how can they be playing baseball right now? Don’t they know I’m running for my life?
Other times, it’s a more direct and obvious scare that colors in the world. In my opinion, the most unsettling of all the two-dozen-plus radio broadcasts relates to the scene of a gruesome cult suicide: 13 men dressed in matching plain white clothes ingested potassium cyanide and died sitting in chairs scattered around a ranch, each of them holding bibles and wearing sunglasses. It recalls infamous scenes like Jonestown or Heaven’s Gate and reminds me that, though The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is only very loosely based on a true story, its depictions of senseless violence really do occur in our world, too.
That was a major point of the original movie; it was a response to the violence of the Vietnam War. While real-life news networks shied away from reporting on the war’s casualties, the film’s creators dared people to stare directly into their inescapably dark reality and not blink. 50 years later, the game has captured this same effect. It creates a genuinely guttural sense of unease for the duration of every round as a way to authentically portray the movie in video game form.
These radio broadcasts could’ve just as easily not been in the game at all, and it probably still would’ve worked. The team sweat the small stuff and remade the house, the chainsaw, and the family in a way that winds up seeming like a museum to the film. But by adding layers to that world, like the news feed does so well, we sink even farther into the hellscape.
“All the trees, the grass, the rocks, the dirt–every single thing you see, you know–all the rusted metal. That’s all from Texas. So when you play our game, it feels like you’re actually there. So we went with that angle, as opposed to just making sure the house was right. We created the whole world from Texas. And I think that gives it a sense of uniqueness that not a lot of games can say they did or they have. So that just keeps trickling down, you know, down to, ‘Okay, yeah, that is the right chair, or that’s the right wallpaper, or these characters are really wearing the right clothes from 1972 or 71. Or they have backstories that link them to real schools or real colleges or real towns.’ That was very important to us. If you know Texas, you know these places that we’re talking about; they really exist. And then we carry that down to the radio broadcasts.”
The finishing touch to these news reports is how you’re not likely to hear the whole thing in any round. A match begins, and as the team of victims, you’re introduced to the map and the selected killers so you can begin to plot your escape before both teams are handed control of their characters. All the while, you hear a news report, but it’s bound to be cut off before you can hear the whole story. This has a classic horror-movie effect that instinctively asks the player to fill in the details, like a restless child making monsters out of shapes in their closet. It all feels so cohesive as a feature, and yet, so optional that Hobbs wasn’t ever sure anyone was paying attention to them.
“It’s fun to talk about it because I still go, ‘Man, is anyone actually hearing these? Do they appreciate it?’ wondered Hobbs. “And then every now and then I run into people who know them all, and they send me questions like, “What about here? It cut me off! What’s the whole story?'”
As mentioned, sometimes these broadcasts allude to the game’s killers, but importantly, not always, even when wicked things are being reported. It’s important to the world-building that some of the game’s news reports are unrelated to the Sawyer family, or else you could wind up creating something like an Evil Forest Gump who happened to be present for every grisly event in Texas at the time. Still, I wondered if players might spot any references to killers yet to arrive in the game.
“They’re all there for a reason. Very, very few of them are just there because we liked the way they sounded,” Hobbs teased. “I’ll leave it at that. None of them are there by accident.”
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, and PS4. It’s also available via Xbox Game Pass. Today, the game received a new update that adds the latest map, The Mill, alongside a new playable victim portrayed by horror legend Barbara Crampton.