In honor of April Fools’ Day 2024, CD Projekt Red, the creators of the popular action RPG Cyberpunk 2077, played a nostalgic prank on fans. They announced a limited “Floppy Edition” of the game on Twitter, joking that it would come on 97,619 3.5″ floppy disks and be delivered by truck to lucky buyers. It honestly seemed like something they’d do, but it’s not real.
The Tweet announcement contained a link to a special page on their website for the fake release, adding to the impression of a real launch. However, the website had a message acknowledging the joke and redirecting fans to experience the actual game on modern platforms with better installation methods. While the idea of a Cyberpunk 2077 floppy disk release was funny, the prank reminded people of CD Projekt Red’s history as a distributor on CDs.
Staying true to the joke, CD Projekt Red extended the prank by sharing more exaggerated details, such as answering silly questions about how you only need a Windows 95 to play the port. The computer I use right now has a floppy disk drive, and it’s not really that old. So they still sell PCs with this capability.
The prank appealed to older gamers’ nostalgia and highlighted how much game technology has improved since floppy disks. I remember playing games on floppy disks, one being The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. I can guarantee that if this was a thing, even as an 8-bit version of the game where there’s not much to do but side-scroll and shoot robots, it would sell. We’ll have to wait to see it come, but some commenters actually liked the idea.
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