Cyberpunk 2077 devs say no to sexytime with Keanu
Unless you get his permission
CD Projekt Red have intervened to remove a Cyberpunk 2077 mod that allowed players to swap in Keanu Reeves' character, Johnny Silverhand, into the game's sex scenes. Made by "Catmino" on Nexus Mods, it allowed players to change the character models for joytoys (Cyberpunk's men and women of the night) to a variety of NPCs. But while CDPR are okay with players swapping these to other fictional characters, they say you can't use models with a real-world likeness without that person's permission.
"Our most important rule regarding user-generated content, game mods in particular, is that it can't be harmful towards others. In the case of model swaps, especially those that involve explicit situations, it can be perceived as such by the people who lent us their appearance for the purpose of creating characters in Cyberpunk 2077," CD Projekt Red told Eurogamer.
"Therefore, when making fan content, creators have to make sure they've got permission from all the concerned parties (which might be people other than CD Projekt Red). For the characters we've invented for the game, we broadly permit you to tweak the game at will and just have fun. When it comes to models of real people whom we've asked to participate in the game, we kindly ask you to refrain from using them in any situation that might be found offensive if you don't have their explicit permission."
CDPR point towards their License Agreement and Fan Content Guidelines for modders who might want a little more detail about what they can and can't do.
Their response came after Eurogamer's Emma Kent reported on the mod on Wednesday. At the time, modder Catmino said that Johnny Silverhand wasn't originally part of the mod, but was added by popular demand. The mod had instructions for how players could swap out the character models they wanted too, so even if Keanu's character model was removed from it, players could just figure out how to put it back in themselves.
The mod has since been removed from Nexus Mods completely. To be fair, if I was famous and found out people had modded me into video game sex scenes it would definitely weird me out. You never know though, maybe Keanu would have a good laugh about it - anyone have his contact details?
If you're after some mods that are a little less naughty, here are some of the best Cyberpunk 2077 mods we've seen so far. And if you're a mod maker yourself, CDPR have released some official tools and support for modding the game now (just don't use them to bang virtual celebs, I guess).