The runaway success of Cyberpunk 2077 guaranteed a sequel would be greenlit (CD Projekt)
There’s a lot more info on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel than you may think, thanks to a combination of studio statements, job listings, and official announcements.
Despite all the controversies surrounding its launch back in 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 proved to be a huge success for CD Projekt. Even before all its issues were fixed, it was breaking records and selling millions of copies.
So, it came as no surprise to hear CD Projekt announce a sequel, codenamed Orion, just two years later. Since then, Cyberpunk 2077 has well and truly redeemed itself in the eyes of most fans, thanks to subsequent updates, the tie-in Netflix anime, and the Phantom Liberty DLC.
With development on Cyberpunk 2077 wrapping up last year, and its staff moving onto the sequel, here’s a rundown of everything we currently know about Orion – or Cyberpunk 2 as some fans call it.
What we know about Cyberpunk 2
Although CD Projekt has yet to share any footage of Cyberpunk 2’s gameplay, there’s a fair bit we can already say about it, thanks to job listings and comments from CD Projekt.
For starters, a listing for a gameplay animator position within the Cyberpunk 2 team reveals the game will use a first person perspective. This was a safe assumption to make though, since Cyberpunk 2077 is played in first person too, with no option for a third person mode.
A separate listing for a senior systems designer mentions a crafting system, which also featured in Cyberpunk 2077 as a means of making and upgrading weapons.
That system was drastically simplified in a 2023 update, so it’s likely Cyberpunk 2’s crafting will build upon that rather than the system’s original form.
What will be new in Cyberpunk 2?
The sequel is bound to retain Cyberpunk 2077’s open world structure as well, but a senior narrative designer listing suggests CD Projekt wants to improve upon it with open world events.
Some players found Cyberpunk 2077’s setting of Night City too static for their liking and were left underwhelmed by how little there is to do outside of side quests. It has some events that can randomly trigger, but these are limited to gangs attacking you and, in the DLC, two repeatable quests.
It’s an element that could certainly be expanded upon with a sequel and help address those aforementioned complaints, bringing the open world more in line with ones seen in games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
CD Projekt is certainly looking to push the boundaries of what open world settings are capable of, with a lead encounter designer listing talking about creating ‘the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date.’
This could be tied to the world events, allowing for non-player characters to react in a variety of ways to any random occurrences in the open world, as well as to the player’s actions.
What is the story about in Cyberpunk 2?
As for the story, that’s something CD Projekt is eager to improve upon with the sequel. Cyberpunk 2077 does have a branching storyline, but the three lifepaths (as in the backgrounds for player character V) you can choose at the start of the game have little to no influence on how the story unfolds.
In 2023, narrative director Philipp Weber (who is currently working on The Witcher 4) acknowledged this and said this is a detail that could be addressed with Cyberpunk 2.
‘I do think there are things with, for example, the life paths, that kind of gives you a promise as being able to play more different kinds of characters,’ said Weber on CD Projekt’s own AnsweRED podcast.
‘I think this is a thing where, in the future, that’s as an example something we would like to improve. Since I do think we gave a promise there that maybe in the end we did not really sell.’
In a 2024 interview with Aftermath, associate game director Paweł Sasko discussed ensuring the sequel doesn’t invalidate whatever choices players made in the first game, while also following up on the stronger reactions to player choices seen in Phantom Liberty.
It also sounds like Cyberpunk 2 wants to double down on the first game’s interactive cut scenes as a now deleted job listing for a lead cinematics designer (via TheGamer) talked about, ‘crafting highly interactive cinematic sequences using animation libraries and motion capture, creating a unique fusion of film and game.’
Barring the ending, Cyberpunk 2077’s cut scenes were entirely told in-engine, from a first person perspective. The sequel may be moving away from that if it’s taking more influences from film, but that’s pure speculation at this point.
Who is working on Cyberpunk 2?
In early 2024, CD Projekt confirmed a number of Cyberpunk 2077 staff members who would be spearheading the sequel. Those staff members are:
Gabriel Amatangelo (game director)
Paweł Sasko (associate game director)
Igor Sarzyński (creative director)
Andrzej Stopa (cinematic director)
Kacper Niepokólczycki (environment art director)
Sarah Grümmer (acting lead quest designer)
Kacper Kościeński (engineering director)
In addition, they’ve been joined by a handful of games industry veterans, which includes:
Executive producer Dan Hernberg (former head of production at Amazon Games)
Design director Ryan Barnard (former game director at Ubisoft)
Engineering director Alan Villani (former VP of technology at Warner Bros. Games)
Lead writer Anna Megill (whose writing credits include Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora and Control)
Writer Alexander Freed (former lead writer at BioWare)
The project is being handled by CD Projekt Red North America (CD Projekt’s American subsidiary), which consists of studios based in Vancouver, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts.
Night City is an American location steeped in Japanese culture designed by a Polish team (CD Projekt)
In a podcast discussing the Boston studio, Dan Hernberg expressed hope that this development will help Cyberpunk 2 feel more authentically American as opposed to the first game, which had some minor details in its setting that gave away that it was made by non-Americans.
‘[Cyberpunk]’s got a lot of like, punk energy, and [the tabletop game] was written by an American, so it just seems right to do it in America,’ said Hernberg.
As of October 2024, Cyberpunk 2 is known to have 64 people working on it (per a CD Projekt earnings call). While that is a small number for such a huge project it’s normal for a game that’s still early in development. By comparison, The Witcher 4, which showed off its first trailer in December, currently has a development team of over 400.
CD Projekt intends on expanding the Cyberpunk 2 team as time goes on, with the plan being to double its headcount by the end of 2025.
Will Cyberpunk 2 have multiplayer?
Any Cyberpunk 2077 sequel will be a traditional single-player game, but it is possible Cyberpunk 2 will include some sort of multiplayer component. This is according to CD Projekt CEO Adam Badowski, who told Reuters multiplayer elements were being considered for the sequel.
This isn’t guaranteed, though. After all, Cyberpunk 2077 was meant to have multiplayer too, as part of CD Projekt’s push for online multiplayer features for all its games. In the wake of Cyberpunk 2077’s rocky launch, a shift in priorities led to the multiplayer mode being cancelled (via Eurogamer).
Do you want multiplayer modes in Cyberpunk 2? (CD Projekt)
When will Cyberpunk 2 release?
There’s no official launch window for Cyberpunk 2, but it’s not unreasonable to assume it could be out before the end of the decade.
The sequel was ‘on a conceptual design level’ in late 2023 and entered the early stages of development around the start of 2024. Given how long it takes to make games nowadays, especially big budget ones like Cyberpunk 2077, our best estimate for the sequel’s release is 2029 or 2030, though that is assuming everything goes smoothly.
For what it’s worth, Cyberpunk 2077 was announced in 2012, but it wasn’t until E3 2019 when CD Projekt gave it a release date of April 16, 2020. Even then, the game saw multiple delays, so CD Projekt could get it running on multiple platforms (something it spectacularly failed at, considering how buggy the last gen console versions were) and in the end it wasn’t released until December 10, 2020.
Part of that can be blamed on the coronavirus pandemic, which did severely hamper game development worldwide. Hopefully, development on the sequel won’t be as tumultuous, but it’s clearly going to be a long road to release…
What platforms will Cyberpunk 2 be released for?
CD Projekt has not confirmed which platforms Cyberpunk 2 will be available on but, given the company’s track record, it’s safe to assume there will be a PC version at the very least.
The real question is which consoles it will launch for. By the time the sequel comes out the PlayStation 6 and the next gen Xbox console could be out, since both are rumoured to arrive by around 2028.
Cyberpunk 2 could do what Cyberpunk 2077 did and launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X first and then be ported to the newer consoles at a later date. Or, if development winds up taking longer, it could launch for all four consoles simultaneously.
Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Project Orion – everything we know so far