The immersive sim as a genre has been foundational to the advancement of modern video games, emphasizing player choice, creative decision making and interactive worlds. Yet it is also a genre that has historically sunk studios and offered little in the way of profit or mainstream success for those who make them. However, despite masquerading as an RPG, Cyberpunk 2077's imminent release has once again provided the immersive sim with an opportunity to expand its appeal to a much wider audience.
For over two decades, game developers have attempted to make the immersive sim a mainstream genre. But despite their continued efforts, it seems as if the genre has forever relegated its appeal to a niche audience due to the relative complexity of the moment-to-moment gameplay that is characteristic of immersive sims. Though games like Prey or the Deus Ex series have put a spotlight on immersive sims and have received endless critical praise, neither has been particularly financial success for their respective studios. Developed in the early 1990s during a time of great experimentation and creative freedom in the industry, from the very beginning, the immersive sim seems to have survived despite itself.
When immersive sims first emerged onto the scene in their earliest incarnations à la the System Shock games, their gameplay advancements and innovations were so monumental that gamers of the time were left with few other points of reference to describe this new genre. Most players disregarded these early games as poor Doom and Half-Life clones respectively.
Though these games received critical acclaim at the time and continue to be hailed as progenitors of immersive sim design philosophy, both titles failed commercially during their initial releases. This is partially due to mishandled marketing, but also a lack of understanding or interest on the part of the gaming audience.
Unfortunately for fans and developers of immersive sims, the continued lack of mainstream interest in the genre has been a continued trend over the last twenty years. Despite receiving somewhat of a resurrection during the last decade, with multiple Bioshock, Dishonored and Deus Ex games having been released, none of these modern immersive sims have turned enough of a profit to encourage developers to make the genre a staple of modern game releases.
In fact, the only times an immersive sim has reached mass appeal is when the emergent gameplay systems and action-RPG mechanics have been streamlined to the point of near nonexistence. This is the case with the Bioshock franchise, which (while having elements of the immersive sim) still plays far more like a traditional first-person shooter.
However, with the release of Cyberpunk 2077 right around the corner, the potential for a real, complex immersive sim finally reaching the mainstream is here. While the past eight years of marketing hype for Cyberpunk has put an emphasis on its history as a tabletop RPG and the incredible potential for unique role-playing scenarios within the game world, it becomes ever more clear that CD Projekt RED's latest game is less of a regular RPG, but is instead the most complex, detailed immersive sim that gamers have ever seen.
During an E3 2019 interview with YouTube personality, YongYea, a quests director on the Cyberpunk development team was quoted as saying, "We paid lots of attention in adding this level of non-linearity in terms of gameplay...We've put a lot of attention and focus on giving the player the freedom to play the game the way they would want it to be played." Clearly, CD Projekt RED has been hard at work ensuring that their latest game is full to the brim with player choice and emergent gameplay. These are hallmarks of the immersive sim, as are first-person sneaking, hacking and shooting gameplay trifecta.
With that said, if Cyberpunk 2077 manages to live up to its immense hype and become the summer blockbuster it is shaping up to be, the potential for more games to take advantage of the immersive sim design philosophy will be bigger than ever before. Regardless of Cyberpunk 2077's success, or lack thereof, there will likely still be immersive sims released from time to time. However, if it is not a financial hit, it could spell disaster for other immersive sims in development, such as System Shock 3 and the System Shock Remake, and make it unlikely that the genre will ever make the leap to the mainstream.