CD Projekt wants Cyberpunk to have ‘a similar evolution’ to the Witcher series

CD Projekt Red hopes the Cyberpunk series has “a similar evolution” to its The Witcher franchise.

While Cyberpunk 2077 had a notoriously rocky start, it has been significantly improved in the three years since its release, culminating in September’s launch of its Version 2.0 update, which overhauled many of its core systems, and its sole expansion, Phantom Liberty.

With that groundwork now laid, CD Projekt Red has switched its attention to other games, including its Cyberpunk sequel, codenamed Project Orion, which is in the “conceptual design” phase at its North America studios.

In an interview with PC Gamer, narrative director Igor Sarzyński said the studio hopes future series entries will replicate the evolution of The Witcher franchise, which has seen three mainline entries since its debut in 2007.

“Consider The Witcher games and how much they changed with each installment. We want a similar evolution here,” he 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.

“Other aspects took more time to get right, like character progression, NPC interactivity, and optimisation. That’s natural; it’s impossible to nail everything on your first try.

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CD Projekt confirms plans to release a complete edition of Cyberpunk 2077

As an ‘Ultimate Edition’ of the game is reportedly rated in Europe

“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.”

Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Paweł Sasko recently said CD Projekt has “no regrets” about making it a first-person game but hasn’t ruling out introducing changes for the sequel.