CD Projekt President and joint CEO Adam Kicinski has confirmed that Johnny Silverhand himself, Keanu Reeves, has played their highly-anticipated forthcoming title, Cyberpunk 2077. Not only has The Matrix and John Wick star played it, but according to Kicinski, Reeves "loves it."
Kicinski revealed the news during a recent shareholder call after a curious investor asked to know Reeves's thoughts. He shared how the actor had played the game but wasn't sure if he had actually finished it yet—though given that a Cyberpunk 2077 developer has so far spent 175 hours playing the game without getting to the end, it may be a while yet until the busy actor rolls credits on the game. Regardless, Kicinski stressed that Reeves has "played the game and he loves it."
Reeves stars in the sci-fi RPG video game as Johnny Silverhand, a central character featured throughout the Cyberpunk series that the forthcoming video game is based on. Silverhand is an ex-US military veteran and influential Rockerboy. He's also the lead singer of the band Samurai, which rounds out quite the impressive resume. Although charismatic and charming, his character is described as also being irrational, impulsive, and capable of manipulation.
The Hollywood actor was reportedly approached back in 2018 about bringing Johnny Silverhand, who was codenamed Mr. Fusion to help ensure a level of secrecy, to life. Reeves went on to not only provide his voice and likeness to the character but also performed the motion capture work, ensuring that Silverhand is a complete and fully accurate representation of his Cyberpunk 2077 performance.
Not content with all of this, the game will also feature Reeves' actual motorcycles as in-game vehicles, thanks to a partnership between Cyberpunk 2077 and Arch Motorcycle. It was recently revealed that gamers will be able to control Johnny Silverhand at specific points during Cyberpunk 2077's story, putting players directly into his shoes.
Keanu Reeves was officially announced as being involved with Cyberpunk 2077 during Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference, showing up to reveal the game's initial release date before the game suffered several unfortunate setbacks and delays. Cyberpunk 2077 is adapted from the popular Cyberpunk franchise, originally created by Mike Pondsmith as a tabletop role-playing game. Players will be able to travel through and experience the dystopian Night City as the customizable mercenary, V. The game is CD Projekt's first major release since its multi award-winning The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released back in 2015.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be available on December 10 for PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions releasing sometime next year.
Source: VG247
