Well here’s a hilarious juxtaposition for 2020: the futuristic game Cyberpunk 2077 will be getting an old school, officially printed guide / walkthrough book made by Piggyback.
Piggyback may not have the brand recognition that the now defunct Prima Games has in the physical strategy guide world, but it is behind similar treatments for Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
For Cyberpunk 2077, Piggyback is printing a 464-page tome that tries to capture the opened ended RPG nature of the game by giving readers hosts of information to make informed decisions, in place of simple step by step instructions.
“This guide documents all the tools and all the resources at your disposal. Two dedicated chapters plunge into the specifics of all key gameplay systems, enlightening you with the outcomes of thousands of hours of research and analysis, supported by a direct channel to the CD PROJEKT RED dev team. Armed with this, nothing will stop you from turning your version of V into exactly the kind of Night City legend you’ve been dreaming of,” reads the description from Piggyback.
The guide will come in two variants: the Standard Edition and the Collector’s Edition. The former is a softcover book, while the latter is a hardcover with a reflective cover (see the gif below) as well as extra images inside.
The RRP of the books are US $24.99 / CAN $32.99 / AUD $39.95 for the Standard Edition and US $39.99 / CAN $49.99 / AUD $59.95 for the Collector’s Edition. Order links can be found here with a release date pegged as 19th November, the same day as the launch of the game.
If you’re outside those territories it looks like you’ll have to import the book yourself or hope a local retailer does it for you. Right now the prices converted into Rands (~R411 and ~R658 for the two, using the USD price) make them pricey purchases before importing.
While we’re sure Piggyback did a great job here printed guides just feel so out of place in 2020. Most of the information these books used to provide can be had for free with a simple Google, and they have a horrible tendency to become outdated and incorrect as games are patched and updated.
It’s especially weird here as Cyberpunk 2077 is so focused on the future and all the cool new tech it has to offer.
If you want to go through a walk down memory lane, or you’re on the younger side and never interfaced with printed walkthroughs before, we highly recommend this video by Scot the Woz which covers the history of the format and its gradual decline.
