Gabriel Stanford-ReisingerKeanu Reeves, who plays Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 (read our review), has gone on record during an 18-minute video interview with The Verge as part of press rounds for The Matrix Awakens as someone who hasn’t played the game for himself.
Toward the end of the interview, he was asked if he plays video games, which he promptly said he doesn’t. When the interviewer asked about playing Cyberpunk, Reeves said he’s seen demonstrations, but never actually played it himself.
This is a huge curveball and proved that CD Projekt Red lied back in November 2020 to investors about whether the high-profile actor played it and what he thought of it. Not only did they say he played it, but he “loved it.” While he could’ve enjoyed the presentations, at the state that he supposedly could’ve played, it would’ve been a buggy mess, so odds are, the presentations were very, very carefully constructed.
The story isn’t that Keanu Reeves doesn’t play video games, but rather it’s CDPR using his name and using now-verifiably false information to make their game more appealing to those who adore the John Wick actor. He was even a heavy part of their advertising dating back to mid-2019 during that year’s E3 when he was revealed.
Jump to now and Cyberpunk 2077 is only starting to get on its feet after getting pulled from the PlayStation Store for almost seven months. With a current-gen upgrade on the horizon, it’s safe to say that they hope it will improve the game enough to make people forgive its awful launch to last-gen consoles.