Pre-loading Cyberpunk 2077 on GOG gives you a nice Easter egg but no early access

Who will enter Night City first? For those who pre-loaded Cyberpunk 2020 from CD Projekt Red's own digital storefront GOG, it appears the 'Play' button lights up as soon as the download is complete. But if you were hoping for special early access, think again.

Previously, the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account was eager to remind players that buying the game on GOG ensures 100% of your money goes to CD Projekt Group. But what's in it for fans showing their loyalty to Europe's biggest video game company valued at $8.13 billion? Might they get a sneak early access to the game in the same way for certain game subscriptions or deluxe editions?

Sadly, the answer is no.

As a screenshot shared by Reddit user Jmendo02 shows, if you press play before the official release date, what you get instead is an image with a message from Johnny Silverhand: "Go back to sleep, Samurai. It's not December 10th yet!"

It's nonetheless a cute little Easter egg, as the image is taken from the same junkyard background seen at the end of the E3 2019 trailer, where Keanu Reeves was first revealed as Johnny Silverhand. The message is also a deliberate mirror of his line in the trailer where he says, "Wake the f**k up, Samurai. We have a city to burn."

Essentially, the only way to play Cyberpunk 2077 early is if you're a console user who was lucky to receive their physical copy ahead of street date.

For those who have already pre-loaded Cyberpunk 2077, you'll want to ensure that this includes the pre-launch patch, which brings the full game size to over 100GB - and there's still a day one patch to come.

We're also waiting to see if CD Projekt Red have plans to address the reports that the game features images that could trigger epileptic seizures, especially with its unique Braindance feature.

Cyberpunk 2077 is out December 10 on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Stadia, with next-gen console upgrades coming in 2021.