A mod that allowed players to sort of have sex with Keanu Reeves' character Johnny Silverhand in
Cyberpunk 2077 has already been disabled by CD Projekt Red.
The mod, created by modder Catmino and hosted on Nexus mods, allowed players to swap skin textures onto different models in the game. By swapping Johnny Silverhand's skin texture onto one of the robot sex workers (joytoys) around Night City, players could have sex with what looked like Silverhand. Swapping textures would do nothing for the robots' voices, and they remained clothed, so the mod wasn't exactly a great replica, but it garnered enough attention to be reported on by
Eurogamer earlier today. Soon after that post was published, the mod was removed from Nexus.
In a statement to PC Gamer on why the mod was removed, CD Projekt Red said: "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." Basically, they don't want modders putting Keanu into NSFW situations he didn't sign on for.
CD Projekt Red went on to state: "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."
After all the other
controversies this game has faced, it's probably not a bad move to keep players from messing with real likenesses too much.
