Keanu Reeves says he never played Cyberpunk 2077

Interview with a new person The MatrixResurrections stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, conducted by Polygon’s sister site The Verge, has been ricocheting around the Internet for a variety of reasons. One is Reeves’ laughing skepticism about NFTs and how easy it is to reproduce their images. Another reason is Reeves’ chemistry with Moss as they discuss tech — he the wide-eyed visionary, she the unsure skeptic.

But there’s another moment that caught folks’ attention: Reeves’ brief admission that he never played the game in which he starred, Cyberpunk 2077, It was launched one year ago. First spotted on Reddit by a now-deleted account, the admission directly contradicts statements made by CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński in late 2020.

During the interview, which promotes Epic Games’ playable Unreal Engine 5 demo The Matrix Rewakens, The conversation moves to the other games where the characters were portrayed by the pair. There’s a brief mention of Moss’ time in the Mass Effect series, and Reeves mentions that Warner Bros. “is like ‘Where’s the ball?’ Oh, you mean the ball you dropped 15 years ago?” in response to questions about another Matrix Video game

But when asked if he plays video games himself, he offers a quick, direct, one-word answer: “No.”

Even when asked to follow-up, Cyberpunk? He responds: “No. I’ve seen demonstrations but I’ve never played.”

Now, compare that with what Kiciński told investors in CD Projekt Red’s third quarter earnings call. Seeking Alpha translated the question late in CD Projekt Red’s third quarter earnings call. Kiciński says, “Yes. Yes. Yes. But as far as I know haven’t finished yet. So — but definitely, he played the game and he loves it.”

Polygon reached out to CD Projekt Red in order for comments.

Reeves was seen playing the game, which made the headlines in that era. TheGamer, (which spotted the contradiction, first noted in 2020 that it was “a rewarding and rather meta thought to picture Reeves interacting with his in-game character Johnny Silverhand.”

Reeves may have played the game prior to launch and noticed that there were launch bugs that would continue well into 2021. Sony offered full refunds for digital purchases of the game, and also allowed players to take it out from their stores. The game was returned by Sony in July 2021.

Reeves is definitely no luddite — in the interview, he gleefully embraces the idea of Johnny Silverhand being wanted for sex by Cyberpunk players, and finds it “awesome,” in several possible connotations of the word, that kids today reject the duality of real and fake offered by the first Matrix movie.

However, he seems to be averse to playing videogames. He defends himself. Cyberpunk at launch wouldn’t have been a very good introduction.