Cyberpunk 2077- Panam
With no fresh information regarding Cyberpunk 2077 to provide, CDPR has taken to Twitter to expose various statistics about the game. Most of them aren’t particularly intriguing to me, such as how many billions of Eddies people have spent at Vic the Ripperdoc, but they did one yesterday that was.
According to CDPR, 67.53 percent of players chose a relationship with Panam in Cyberpunk 2077, the game’s now-famous nomad character. Except it’s not what you think. That’s over other “major” romance alternatives like Judy, River, and Kerry.
4 Characters to date
In Cyberpunk 2077, the four romance options were cleanly divided into Male V gay/straight options and Female V gay/straight options. Male Vs can only date Panam or Kerry, and Judy or River will reject them. Female Vs can only date Judy or River, and Panam or Kerry will reject them. While you can have a masculine voice with a female body or vice versa, romanceable characters choose the voice rather than the body (presumably due to not wanting to record more voicework).
67% choose Panam
So, if 67.53 percent of players choose Panam as their partner, it means at least 67.53 percent of players preferred a Male V (at least in terms of voice) to a female V. And my opinion is that the additional Male Vs who selected Kerry won’t be more than 10%, but more likely around 5%. Let’s say 73 percent of Cyberpunk 2077 players choose Male V as their character.
Gender Disparities
Gender disparities in video game statistics abound. Sony recently announced some encouraging statistics, revealing that the number of female PS4/PS5 owners has surpassed 40%. But then there are data like this, which reminds me of the old Assassin’s Creed Odyssey statistic that two-thirds of players chose Alexios over Kassandra. That’s something I often bring up since it’s an example of gamers having an utterly bad experience because Kassandra’s voicework, and therefore her character, is so much better.
In Cyberpunk, I have similar feelings about Male V versus Female V, but perhaps not to Kassandra’s severity. Male V is OK, but Cherami Leigh’s Female V voicework is some of the best “first person” voicing I’ve ever heard in a video game, and she single-handedly made the tale work for me. She’s a real standout in a game with so many other issues. And, based on this statistics, it appears that only around a fourth of Cyberpunk gamers had the opportunity to meet her.
Anyone else also wants female players?
I’m not trying to “scold” you; I just believe it’s intriguing. Having more female players in a game like this would obviously be beneficial. And I believe that men should occasionally step outside of their comfort zones and play as the opposite gender (I know some do, but clearly not a ton).