New Console, New Rules: Creating Cyberpunk 2077 for Nintendo Switch 2

With platform-exclusive features like motion controls and touch screen functionality, we had to dive back into the very foundation of what makes Cyberpunk 2077 unique to determine how to implement these completely new mechanics — and decide if we should at all.

“The philosophy was to do it but not force it,” said Filip Downar, our Gameplay Technical Design Expert. “We really wanted to add these features but decided we would only do so if it was genuinely good, if it actually added to the experience. We didn’t want to include something as an afterthought.”

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 includes the base game, the acclaimed spy-thriller expansion Phantom Liberty, and every update we’ve released since launch. But it also includes motion controls that have V mirroring your own movements, touch screen functionality that lets you navigate menus like a real netrunner, and mouse and gyro controls that add pin-point precision to every shot. But while all of these mechanics work intuitively now, exactly as players would expect, achieving this result wasn’t always easy.

“The only thing that was obvious was the goal,” Filip said. “On one hand, pattern matching, for instance, seems very obvious because it’s ‘just’ motion controls. But on the other hand, I didn’t want those patterns to be seen as a gimmick.

“We had the goal of increasing immersion, and started off with a package of possibilities with different patterns. But we found that players get confused if there are too many.” This is because each pattern, to be used intuitively, had to be distinct. Players can roll their left Joy-Con 2 to dodge, for example, but as different players have unique interpretations of mechanics, and have different means of movement, are playing in different spaces, and so on, getting too granular isn’t effective. Players could perform the wrong action accidentally, taking them out of the experience, Filip Downar explained.

“We had to create patterns that matched players’ expectations — for a system that no one had used yet! We were polishing these for months, with lots of experimentation, but I think it was worth it because I genuinely believe using motion controls adds to the experience and makes everything richer.”

Implementing motion controls when the Nintendo Switch 2 system wasn’t out yet — and hadn’t even been revealed — was a creative challenge for the quality assurance team too. “Cyberpunk 2077 is a near-five-year-old game we know inside out, so adding entirely new movement mechanics for the Nintendo Switch 2 version meant there were no existing test cases to fall back on,” said our Tech QA Analyst Jakub Smodrzak.

“We had to learn these motion systems from scratch, figure out a reliable way to verify their quality, and constantly share feedback. The biggest payoff came from frequent syncs between developers, QA, and our partners — any time someone tweaked something in the system, the dedicated group jumped in to test, record, and troubleshoot. It was a steep learning curve for everyone: even though we already understood Cyberpunk’s core systems, these motion patterns were brand-new. In the end, thanks to that close collaboration, the patterns feel seamless, and it’s one of the best ways to experience Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch 2.”

Filip Downar believes the effort was worth it too. Each Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive feature required a lot of care and attention, but the work that went into getting motion controls right — and the final result feeling so good — makes them his favorite new mechanic. “I'm biased because I worked on it so much and so hard, but the reason I'm saying motion patterns is because at first I was really, really reserved about the feature,” he said. “I usually don’t love motion controls in games.

“But when actually playing, kind of by accident, I learned that I’m able to do things in Cyberpunk 2077 that are impossible to do without. There are certain moments, when using a controller, when you have to let go of your joystick to press a certain button. Two examples that are very important from the gameplay perspective are healing and dodging. You do both of these often, but rarely when nothing else is happening.

“The speed and reactiveness of the motion controls is therefore really important, and that's specifically why we implement the heal and the dodge patterns. They allow you to continue controlling V and stay 100% connected to the character in the game. It’s not something you realize before playing with motion controls, but it makes the entire experience more seamless and immersive.”

And that was our main goal, beyond simply introducing the dark future of Night City to Nintendo players for the first time. Cyberpunk 2077 is all about immersion, and we wanted to push the boundaries of that even further on Nintendo Switch 2. We’ve loved seeing brand new and returning players jump in to experience what we put together, and hope many more continue to do so going forward. We worked incredibly hard on making all these new features as natural to the core gameplay experience as possible, and really believe this is the most cyberpunk way to play Cyberpunk 2077.