Cyberpunk 2077 will let players toggle copyrighted music on or off
Some kind of a solution, at least.
CD Projekt has announced that Cyberpunk 2077 will arrive with a "disable copyrighted music" toggle, enabling players to go through the game without hearing that portion of in-game tracks which, if streamed or recorded, could result in copyright strikes and takedown notices. This follows consternation among streamers in particular that they might have to play one of the year's biggest games without the soundtrack.
In a blog post CDPR writes: "Cyberpunk 2077 will feature a beautiful, robust original score created by our in-house composers. In addition, you will be able to listen to over 150 songs created by wonderful artists representing diverse genres and we are confident you will love the music played by the in-game radio stations and in clubs. Unfortunately, the world of copyright law is complicated and not all of these songs can be streamed or used in your video content."
After explaining that the toggle should stop players running into any copyright issues, CDPR adds “if you run into any problems of this nature despite having the toggle on, be sure to check with us at legal@cdprojektred.com. We will try our best to help you!" Which is nice of them.
Cyberpunk 2077 is due for release on December 11 and, going on the fact that PS4 copies are already in the wild, it looks likely to make that date. Meantime, here's the latest tracks released, where you can check out some of the in-game artists like Run the Jewels that you'll need to toggle off when streaming.
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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."