Cyberpunk 2077 Is Causing Epileptic Seizures In Its Players

After several delays and countless controversies in the build-up to its release, Cyberpunk 2077 will finally be available on PC and current and next gen consoles this Thursday, December 10, but apparently that’s not where the drama ends with this game.

With numerous copies of Cyberpunk 2077 already out in the wild, early reports are warning that certain sequences in the game can be dangerous to those who suffer from epilepsy.

Game Informer associate editor Liana Ruppert has published a warning for epileptic players such as herself, stating that the Braindance sequences in the game can trigger a seizure:

During my time with Cyberpunk 2077, I suffered one major seizure and felt several moments where I was close to another one.

Braindances involve entering a virtual reality world within the game, with loads of blinking red and white lights and red and blue visual effects.

Pretty much everything about this is a trigger and this is something that caused me to have a grand mal seizure when playing.

She points out that the in-game headset and its blinking white and red LEDs are similar to the real-life devices that neurologists use to purposely trigger seizures when diagnosing them.

Naturally, Gaming Twitter is not happy:

So apparently Cyberpunk 2077 stimulates the exact light flashing pattern doctors use to trigger seizures on purpose.

You can’t make this shit up.https://t.co/NcWOYrsFrB

— BY2K 🇨🇦 (@TheBY2K) December 8, 2020

With its genre and overall theming, I figured Cyberpunk 2077 would be bad for epileptic people but I didn’t think it would be “Unavoidable story moments that start and end with a device that is literally meant to cause seizures” bad.

— garret bates (@mlgspacememe) December 8, 2020

just heard about that cyberpunk epilepsy shit and hooooo boy what kind of sick motherfucker would use a specific pattern that is Medically Designed to trigger seizures in any game at all

— Squimpus (@squimpus) December 8, 2020

I don’t have epilepsy or experience seizures, but I have noticed that rapidly-flashing light patterns make me feel extraordinarily panicked and activate my fight-or-flught response, so I very much appreciate warnings like this.

— Ria the Potato Witch (@ThePotatoWitch) December 8, 2020

To the people under the tweet, take it from another epileptic: A warning only goes so far. This isn’t just a case of “this could induce a seizure”, IT DID. That’s the problem. This makes the game inaccessible for a lot epileptics.

— Jen (@Kolykou) December 8, 2020

Seems like some of these people think CD Projekt Red have thrown in these seizure-inducing scenes on purpose, which isn’t likely, is it? But from the looks of it it’s yet another issue with the game they will have to address, maybe with a patch following its release.

What’s unbelievably fucked up is that a bunch of gamers have targeted the reporter who wrote about her Cyberpunk seizures by sending her videos designed to trigger her condition:

Warning: I’ve been sent hundreds of videos disguised as support that are deliberate flashing to induce photosensitive triggers. If you’re sharing this saying you’re epileptic and receive a video, don’t press play. I’m back to being on my ass.

Be better, please.

— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) December 8, 2020

Jeez, what is it with the gaming community? If they’re not crying or whining about something they’re pulling diabolical stunts like this. Shameful!

As for how widespread this issue could be, we’ll have to wait and see how many more seizures are triggered once the game is released later this week. Until then, here’s some advice by Liana:

Just look away from the screen! Simple but effective.

The game itself is picking up rave reviews, though every review also points out that is it unbelievably buggy. Hopefully they sort that out with a Day 1 patch.