Cyberpunk 2077's New Update Is the Anti-GTA 6

What if the biggest RPG news this year isn't about GTA 6 at all? Cyberpunk 2077 just dropped Patch 2.5, and it's a game-changer for anyone who loves to tinker, replay, and make Night City their own.

CD Projekt Red surprised fans by announcing a built-in mod client for Cyberpunk 2077, delivered in co-development with Virtuos Studios. This comes right after adding full mod support to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered. Patch 2.5 isn't just about mods, though—it's a two-in-one deal that CDPR skipped straight past a 2.4 update for. You're getting new clothing items, long-awaited cyberware customization courtesy of new NPC vendors called Glamdocs, and the ability to dual-wield any pistol or revolver combination. Plus, there are "cozy" new missions where V learns more about the founding of Night City, and plenty of connective tissue between the game and Netflix's new season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

But the real headline is mod support. Associate game director Pawel Sasko sounded incredibly enthusiastic on the latest Redstreams about what this patch means for replayability. The team is fully supportive of fans getting creative to make their next playthrough more unique than ever. CDPR even welcomes story mods among the plethora of ways you can reshape the experience to suit your needs—something Rockstar has reiterated its vocal opposition to in its recent fair use reminder. That's a fundamental difference in philosophy: one developer embraces community creativity, the other sells a product.

It's an outlier in that regard. A healthy modding community and a robust customization system are the hallmarks of almost every successful game or franchise of the last two decades. Cyberpunk 2077 (and The Witcher 3, by extension) is following the example set out by Skyrim, Baldur's Gate 3, Mass Effect, The Sims 4 (until recently), and countless others. It's a surefire way to keep players engaged and interested in a title long past its release year, offering countless ways to experience the same story through brand new eyes.

But Rockstar seems to think the Grand Theft Auto name is more than enough to justify bucking this particular trend. Forgive the ice-cold take, but fostering a strong sense of community should be paramount to every game developer. When you see RPG developers like CDPR and Larian Studios going out of their way to not only engage with their communities but deliver long-awaited quality-of-life additions, it makes you look more critically at those who refuse to. Respect should go both ways. If Rockstar wants to keep its legions of loyal followers, why not adapt to their needs instead of give them a hiding before the game is even out?

Then again, Rockstar is no stranger to doing things differently. Where some devs embrace the changing tides that dictate our ever-shortening attention spans, Rockstar can just buy the ocean from under Poseidon. After all, it ended up acquiring GTA Online mod developer FiveM, a team it once threatened with legal action, in order to at least profit off of its roleplaying servers. This is a team that plays by very different rules, so if you're hoping that Rockstar might slacken its leash on modding once GTA 6 has been out for some time, I wouldn't hold my breath.

GTA 6 isn't an RPG, as any genre purist will rush to tell you. Neither in its format nor in the attitude with which it was created. Rockstar is selling a product, not a community—and that's fine by me. But I wonder how many will agree when it's time for the next iteration of GTA Online to get the GTA 6 treatment. While GTA 5's mode has always been an outlier, online communities in 2026 are different than they were in 2013. In the meantime, I'll take hot pink mantis blades, dual-wielding Jackie's golden pistols, and having cats in all of V's Night City apartments before Rockstar's precious new baby. Call me when Jason gets a gorilla arms mod (and don't tell Mommy on me).

So, what do you think? Will you be diving back into Night City with Patch 2.5, or are you holding out for GTA 6?