CD Projekt Red doesn’t regret making Cyberpunk 2077 a first-person only game, compared to the third-person Witcher franchise, but the developer is yet to make up its mind around Cyberpunk 2, codenamed Orion.
Speaking during the CD Projekt Red Investor Day presentation, Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Paweł Sasko, who will be working on Orion, was asked if CD Projekt Red would consider adding a third-person to first-person toggle in the new game, and if the developer regrets not including one in the current Cyberpunk.
“There are no regrets on our part,” he said. “What we wanted was for Cyberpunk to have its own identity and to be noticeable as this different thing. These days it’s YouTube, Twitch, and screenshots that sell games, and this is the way one can use to show that identity and individuality to players.”
Sasko continued: “I wanted to say that the first-person perspective is the main characteristics for Cyberpunk and its perception by the players too. It’s also noticeably different from The Witcher, and this helped us craft the product identity as such.”
The quest director didn’t give too much away surrounding Orion, but did suggest CD Projekt Red is yet to make its mind up on this front. After explaining why the team only included a first-person mode in Cyberpunk 2077, Sasko added: “But for Orion we’re yet to see.”
The sequel is still years away, of course, as CD Projekt Red is currently focusing on the next Witcher game, Polaris, which will be released in 2025 at the earliest. Orion will be developed at the company’s new North American studios, which are still in the process of being built.
Development on Orion has officially begun, however. CD Projekt Red’s chief creative officer Adam Badowski also said during the presentation that it has entered a “conceptual design level”.
The Investor Day presentation was a relatively busy one for CD Projekt Red, though perhaps not as busy as 2022’s when they announced five new games. Nevertheless, the developer did reveal a live-action Cyberpunk project, confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 had surpassed 25 million units sold, and that CEO Adam Kiciński was stepping down.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.