CD Projekt Red wants Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, codenamed Orion, to undergo a similar evolution to that of The Witcher franchise.
Speaking to PC Gamer, narrative director Igor Sarzyński compared the growth between 2007’s The Witcher and its 2011 sequel, Assassins of Kings, with CD Projekt Red’s hopes for its sci-fi role-playing game franchise.
“Consider The Witcher games and how much they changed with each instalment. We want a similar evolution here,” Sarzyński said. “Cyberpunk 2077 was our first venture into a futuristic-sci-fi world with a ton of new gameplay mechanics, narrative tone, themes, and art direction.
“Some of the stuff worked almost right out of the box, such as the art, city design, music, interactive scene system, playstyles,” he continued. “Other aspects took more time to get right, like character progression, NPC interactivity, and optimization.
“That’s natural; it’s impossible to nail everything on your first try. Now with all the game elements iterated and working well, we’ll focus on connecting them even tighter and creating a coherent, total immersion experience.”
Little is known about Orion, though it’s to be led by Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion director Gabe Amatangelo. Practically everything else, including if CD Projekt Red will make it first-person or third-person, is still up for debate.
A jump as prominent as the one between The Witcher and The Witcher 2 would certainly be ambitious, of course, as while the original 2007 game was well-received, CD Projekt made a huge leap between it and its 2011 sequel, and even more so to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is generally considered one of the best video games of all time.
Cyberpunk 2077’s 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’s chief creative officer Adam Badowski said during the company’s 2023 Investor Day presentation that the sequel has entered a “conceptual design level”.
The Investor Day presentation was a relatively busy one for CD Projekt, though perhaps not as busy as 2022’s when the company 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.