You can adjust the size and color of subtitles in Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red recently confirmed that players will be able to adjust the size and color of subtitles in Cyberpunk 2077 in order to make reading in-game text easier for people.
A significant amount of contemporary games are still built in ways that make them less accessible to large amounts of people. One of the core tenets of design pertaining to this is subtitles, which make games far more approachable for people who are aurally impaired.
After the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account posted a screenshot of a character, one fan replied by asking why the subtitles were so small. You can check out the exchange below.
"It has been said by many, but those subtitles are next to impossible to read," they wrote. "Why make something no one can read that needs to be read?"
"You’ll be able to adjust those (color / size)," replied CD Projekt Red. As a result, people will be able to alter the game's subtitles in order to make them a comfier fit for them depending on their own preferences and needs.
It's fortunate that CD Projekt Red is actively addressing this, as far too many games still don't. In fact, a substantial portion of games are being remastered with very little thought to accessibility at all. Meanwhile Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part 2 is on the other side of the spectrum entirely, setting a completely new benchmark in accessibility that games should - or must - adhere to from here on out.
In related news, Creatures Inc. lead UI designer Dave Gibson recently took to Twitter in order to ask fans how he could improve user interface in future Pokemon games, where accessibility options have historically been treated with less attention than is necessary.
Similarly to Cyberpunk 2077, a large amount of players specifically called for reworking the way in which the game uses subtitles in order to make it more approachable to a wider audience. It may seem like a minor thing, but it really isn't, and can have an astronomical impact on a huge number of people.