© Square EnixCyberpunk 2077 was in the news for several reasons when it was released at the end of last year, but a more pressing concern related to the game’s “braindance” sequence that causes seizures.
After some debate, it was quickly corrected and Microsoft confirmed that it would improve certification procedures to prevent this from happening again on its consoles. However, reports suggest that the recently launched Square Enix Balan Wonderworld also contains a scene that can potentially induce seizures.
The report comes from YouTuber Bigdaddyjende, who uploaded the final footage of the boss from the PS5 edition of the game. There are two segments where bright, flashing white lights appear.
WARNING: We strongly recommend that you do not watch the video if there is a risk of having an epileptic seizure.
If you truth I want to take a look, this happens twice at 11:35 am and 12:40 pm. We did not embed the video on this page, for obvious reasons.
Game Informer’s Liana Ruppert, who covered issues related to Cyberpunk 2077, published the following PSA on the issue:
When I started watching the scene, that you I can see in the video at the 12:40 mark (but I strongly recommend against this or be careful), I immediately had to turn it off. Instantly, my right side fell and I could feel the beginning of an episode. I walked away. I did my usual “checkup” on myself, put in more secure technology settings and looked again, this time at a slower speed to counter the quick trigger effect that I know is a trigger. What I saw – I hope – is simply a pre-release failure, because if this scene was intentional, my concern is that there have been cuts in security checks. I cannot imagine how this possibly went through the necessary security certification process, if it were to be intended.
The scene above doesn’t just use flash effects, it quickly fires a series of white flashes in the background. Fast succession is instantly dangerous, and because of that, I made a PSA on social media to give a warning. Since the tweet aired, several people have contacted each other, including developers and other QA developers, saying they weren’t even epileptics, but they felt “strange” after watching. My husband, who had no previous problems with epilepsy or neurological triggers, complained of feeling dizzy before he vomited. Several others reported the same.
It is not clear whether this affects the Switch or Xbox versions of the game, but Square Enix has tweeted the following about the problem and confirms that it is a known bug:
If you have already purchased the game on Switch, PlayStation or Xbox, we recommend that you download the patch before uploading it.