'Cyberpunk 2077' preload on consoles includes the Day 0 update

Cyberpunk 2077, arguably the most anticipated game of the year, unlocks at midnight local time on December 10th for PCs and consoles, and extra-eager players are able to pre-download the game so it’s ready to rock as soon as the clock flips over. It’s been unclear whether this download would include all of the patches necessary to load the game right away, and at the final hour, CD Projekt RED global community lead Marcin Momot has cleared the air on Twitter.

On consoles, preloading Cyberpunk 2077 includes the Day 0 update (also called the Day 1 patch), so the game should launch at midnight, respective to your own time zone, without extra downloads. PC players will encounter a small patch out of the gate — 2GB to 3GB for Steam and Epic Games Store versions, and a few hundred MBs for GOG players (and don’t forget to grab the latest drivers from NVIDIA).

Boxed editions operate by their own rules here, too. On PC and Xbox, the game and Day 0 update are a package deal, coming in at 60GB to 75GB. On PlayStation, however, the game and update need to be downloaded separately, and they are a combined 110GB.

Update (7:20 PM ET): And right on schedule, the PC version of the game should be unlocking on GOG, Steam and Epic Games Store. The servers appear to be a bit bogged down delivering that initial patch, but if you can’t access it yet try restarting your client.

Update (8:48 PM ET): Many gamers are still looking at loading screens, especially if they installed via GOG or Steam. Steam sent out a tweet noting that the problem may be a display issue, as the game needs to unpack preloaded files before downloading the update, and said you should check your disk activity to see if that’s what is happening. A few people on Twitter reported that they were able to get their installation jump started by unchecking DLC for the game in their Steam library, but we can’t confirm if that will actually help.

You can verify this is what's happening by looking for "Disk Activity" on the downloads page in the Steam client.

When the unpacking has caught up, you'll resume downloading the remaining few GBs. No need to switch data centers or restart the Steam client! pic.twitter.com/E9SmnAtfm0

— Steam (@Steam) December 10, 2020

#Cyberpunk 2077 is now available globally on @GOGcom, @Steam and @EpicGames! pic.twitter.com/tQAc1MceZM

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 10, 2020

‼️ #Cyberpunk2077 preload on consoles includes Day 0 update & the game should unlock at midnight (respective time zone) without additional downloads.

On PC, (1AM CET) GOG players will have to download a few hundreds mb while for Steam/Epic gamers it will be around 2-3 gigs. ‼️

— Marcin Momot (@Marcin360) December 9, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED didn’t release console versions of the game to reviewers, and a handful of early PC players have encountered game-breaking bugs, particularly in the latter half of their adventures. In our review playthrough, the game crashed once, though thankfully it didn’t erase any progress.

Happy hacking, choombas.