Cyberpunk 2077 Free Downloads Are Unsurprising Scams

CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably one of the most anticipated games of the year, though not always for good reasons. The developer, famous for The Witcher series, announced the game way back in 2012 and suffered numerous delays this year, some of which reportedly included crunch that CD Projekt promised it wouldn't do. That said, the excitement over the big game, figuratively and literally, is still extremely high, enough for some to try and take advantage of gamers who are willing to put their computers and data at risk for a free version of the game that isn't even real.

There have been dozens of video games in the cyberpunk genre but Cyberpunk 2077 combines a few elements that make it the high-profile title that it is. For one, there is the promise of an open world, narrative-heavy sci-fi game that CD Projekt is renowned for. Cyberpunk fans are also excited about bringing the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG game to the digital realm, the same way D&D has enjoyed many computer games in its universe.

Cyberpunk 2077 naturally doesn't come for free, costing around $70 at least. As with any game, the Internet is filled with offers of free copies of the game that hasn't even been released yet. And as with any game, there are enough people willing to take that offer for scammers to even bother making their efforts look legit.

Software security company Kaspersky warns about these obvious scams that are unfortunately not so obvious to those getting scammed. The fact that the game is absolutely not free should already clue people in but, unfortunately, there will always be those desperate enough to try their luck. Even when these free offers come with non-working installers that try to make you answer surveys, give out information, and the like. All without actually giving anything back more than a fake loading screen.

The slightly good news is that these scams so far only involve getting people's information to add them to some spam list. That, however, might not be the case in the near future when these installers start carrying malware and ransomware that will truly wreck havoc on people's computers and data just like a dystopian cyberpunk future.