5 years ago, I asked my dear editorial colleague Elessar for a favor: buy me a Venom Snake figurine at gamescom. It wasn’t a typical request, I don’t really collect game character figurines, but with the coming end of the Metal Gear Solid saga, I found that I needed more plastic in my life. Today, the figurine stands in the editorial office and reminds me of the unfinished, quite average Phantom Pain and a little-cult character called The Medic (I encourage the curious to familiarize themselves with the “lore” of these games).
MGS is a well-known series, so it has a lot of figures (including a dog armed to the teeth). Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that has been seen by a fairly narrow group of people and it is difficult to talk about cult heroes in its case – but an overwhelming number of accompanying products are already offered: more expensive and cheaper figurines, an album, Funko, a card game, a theme pad, backpacks and socks. The Witcher 3 made CD Projekt RED gain the trust of partners such as Funko or Dark Horse Comics, and the company’s strategy is simple: to build a brand cult before people get the product. A bold move and, judging by the observation of Cyberpunk’s reddit, effective.
You will say that the flood of “merch” is the standard in the industry? Definitely with the sequels, although Red Dead Redemption already has two parts, and we will not see the official figure of Arthur Morgan and the Dutch gang. Meanwhile, who is V, the hero of Cyberpunk? All in all, not much is known; on the cheaper McFarlane figurines, the male V resembles YouTuber Rojo, on the more expensive ones for PLN 900, he looks like my neighbor from the communist block of Poland. “Default V” is a bit like Commander Shepard, only unknown and characterless (it’s worth noting that most likely not many people will play it – the standard male Shepard was chosen by only 13% of Mass Effect players). Funko recently announced a whole line of products with CP2077. Who are these heroes? unknown. Will they care about us? Hopefully, Funko is definitely counting on it.
I admit that Johnny Silverhand is the most interesting: he has the face of Keanu Reeves and he was in the band. If you bought the game before the premiere and additionally swallowed his figurine, then even if Cyberpunk 2077 turns out to be buggy and weak, when asked by a friend “Hey, what’s that figurine with a guitar?” you’ll be able to answer “It’s Keanu as Ted in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
Anyway, don’t worry, everything will be fine. Cyberpunk is “too big to fail”, right? And though I still don’t know the hardware requirements I can be calm knowing that by placing a pre-order in one of the stores I will get a keychain for free.
