Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer datamine seems to suggest GTA Online similarities

News by Sherif Saed Contributor

Published on Jan. 12, 2021

Cyberpunk 2077's fabled multiplayer may be years away, but that doesn't mean CD Projekt Red isn't already drawing outlines.

You'd be forgiven for completely forgetting that somewhere in CD Projekt Red, a team is working on Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer. The standalone game was only mentioned once or twice, and it won't be out anytime soon.

Given everything Cyberpunk 2077 has been through over the past few months, from multiple delays to a disaster of a launch, it's completely understandable where everyone's minds are at the moment regarding the ambitious RPG.

We know very little about Cyberpunk 2077's in-development multiplayer, but thanks to new datamines, we may have an idea of - at the very least - what CD Projekt Red is planning in very broad terms. The main game's .exe file has been dissected to reveal a number of very curious references to multiplayer.

According to DSOGaming, the executable file appears to mainly include references to two game modes: a standard Deathmatch, and another mode called Heist. DSOGaming says Heists appear to work similarly to existing single-player quests.

Some of the other functions announce player classes, ready states, a countdown, match time, spawns, and what appears to be a lobby.

Here's some of the uncovered strings of code:

MP.Heist.DebugMessageNameChanged
MP.Heist.MessagePlayerReady
MP.Heist.SetPlayerCharacterClass (may imply multiplayer is focused on more strict character class selection system)MP_PlayerReady
++ %s joined the heist
— %s left the heist
Character.Cpo_Muppet_Solo
Character.Cpo_Muppet_Assassin
Character.Cpo_Muppet_Netrunner
Character.Cpo_Muppet_Techie
lobby
cpo_heist_started
Character.Cpo_Muppet_Default
Character.
Character.Cpo_Default_Player

Interestingly, the datamine also revealed a reliance on P2P connections and host authority, though as the site notes, this could just be for internal testing and the final game may very well utilise a dedicated server format.

All of that is fairly vague, and doesn't tell us what you actually do in a multiplayer heist, but the idea is certainly intriguing. Given the similarities between Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA, it's entirely possible CDPR wanted to create its own version of GTA Online's famous heists. Of course, this heist may simply be an entirely different mode that's not necessarily as elaborate as GTA Online heists, but the thought is nonetheless intriguing.