This is either a symbol of Cyberpunk 2077’s wildly reversed reputation or perhaps the board game audience’s endless hunger for throwing money at games with lots of components and a bunch of little plastic guys. A fundraiser for Cyberpunk 2077 – The Board Game by Go On Board hit its target of $100,000 in just 10 minutes and four seconds. It’s now past the $1.9 million mark and continuing to rise.
Note that this is the second Cyberpunk 2077 licensed board game, following Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City – The Board Game by Cool Mini Or Not, which raised a mere $886,783 on Kickstarter.
I’m not immune to the draw of a big box full of cool plastic miniatures myself. I bought a copy of Cthulhu: Death May Die, the co-op game by CMON that raised a stonking $3 million on Kickstarter, and it’s both a fun time and a handy collection of little guys to use in my next Call of Cthulhu game. But it’s tough to get excited when a license as big as Cyberpunk 2077—especially following the popularity of Netflix’s Edgerunners anime and the well-received Phantom Liberty DLC—resorting to crowdfunding. The videogame’s sold more than 25 million copies, surely they know it’s going to have an audience already.
Go On Board previously developed The Witcher: Old World and The Witcher: Path of Destiny board games. If you’re interested in throwing more money at them, or just watching a number go up, they’re crowdfunding Cyberpunk 2077 – The Board Game on Gamefound.