What Is Going On With Cyberpunk 2077’s Sequel?

Cyberpunk 2077 was a very controversial game upon its release in 2020, but it was still very successful and prompted a sequel. CD Projekt Red has become one of the most beloved developers over the last decade. Although the team was making great RPGs for years, The Witcher 3 really put the team on the map in a big way. The studio had big ambitions for a new open-world sci-fi crime game with a first-person perspective, unlike anything they had done before. They spent years hyping it up as this massive, expansive new game and fans were pretty hyped. However, things didn’t go well.

Cyberpunk 2077‘s launch was a notorious crash and burn. Although tons of people bought the game thanks to its pre-release hype, it was a buggy mess, particularly on consoles. The team spent years fixing it and aligning it with what fans expected, miraculously kind of saving the game by the time its one and only expansion released in 2023. It gave fans hope that maybe a sequel might work now that CD Projekt Red has a better understanding of developing a game like this… and it’s actually going to happen.

Everything We Know About the Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel

The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 is an official project in the works at CD Projekt and not just a rumor, though it doesn’t seem to have a title. The internal name for the game is Project Orion, but it has been referred to as Cyberpunk 2 by the studio. It’s unclear if that name will stick or if it will once again have a year in the title, but we will likely have to wait a while to find out.

Although it was announced in 2022, Cyberpunk 2 didn’t enter pre-production until May 2025. This is the stage where you essentially plan out the entire development and cement what the game is through prototypes. The studio noted that its games can take as many as five years to complete, so we may not be playing Cyberpunk 2 until the 2030s at the earliest.

” […] our journey from pre-production to final release takes four to five years on average,” CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski in an investor call. “Having said that, keep in mind that each project is unique, and there are many variables that influence the final outcome. So I will not lead you into specific years, but yes, this is pretty much how it looks.”

Not much is known about what exactly we’ll be doing in Cyberpunk 2, but it will be set in Night City once again. Franchise creator Mike Pondsmith let it slip that Night City will be the setting once more, but there will also be a second city in Cyberpunk 2 that he referred to as “Chicago gone wrong”, so the world will be greatly expanded. It’s unclear if V will return as the protagonist, though it is heavily doubted as the original game has multiple endings that give them a pretty definitive conclusion, whether it be through death or leaving Night City entirely.

Some have taken this to mean that Johnny Silverhand won’t return either, but Keanu Reeves has expressed interest in being in Cyberpunk 2. Pondsmith has also floated the idea of there being ways to incorporate Silverhand into this story if they want to, but didn’t elaborate on how that might be feasible.

The studio has estimated that it will need between 350 – 500 developers to make the game, but only roughly 100 developers are working on Cyberpunk 2 as of May 2025 at CD Projekt’s new North American teams located in Boston and Vancouver. CD Projekt Red is primarily housed in Poland, but the team has expanded not only to be able to do more projects, but diversify the staff itself.

The Witcher 4 is currently CD Projekt’s main focus, with over 400 developers building that game. It will release before Cyberpunk 2, but given these are two different games being made at two different parts of the studio, it seems likely that more external staff will be hired to make Cyberpunk 2. This eliminates the team having to wait to get Cyberpunk 2 up and running. However, one shared learning experience will be the fact that both games will run on Unreal Engine 5, moving away from CD Projekt’s native REDengine. This will make it easier for CD Projekt to hire outside help, as more developers are familiar with Unreal Engine and don’t have to get acquainted with the studio’s internal tech.

As for specific names of people working on the project, Cyberpunk 2 is being led by Gabriel Amatangelo, the director of the excellent Phantom Liberty expansion for the first game, and is joined by veteran game writers such as Anna Megill (Control). It seems like the sequel is in pretty safe hands and fans should be excited for what’s on the horizon.

Finally, job listings seem to suggest that Cyberpunk 2 may incorporate a multiplayer mode. The team noted that it was considering it, but nothing has been outright confirmed, and even if that is what these job listings mean, it could get cut. Cyberpunk 2077 also had a multiplayer mode planned, but it was scrapped before release. It’s possible that it’s a more feasible offering this time around now that the team knows what it’s in for, but it’s hard to say what the scale of that could be. Would it be co-op? Something akin to GTA Online where dozens of players freely roam the world? Perhaps it’s just a PvP experience? It’s hard to say right now.

When Will We Hear More About Cyberpunk 2?

We will likely continue to get random small tidbits of info for Cyberpunk 2 over the next few years. CD Projket Red is quite forthcoming and transparent with the public about what it’s doing, so it wouldn’t be shocking if we get some breadcrumbs in more investor calls and random interviews. However, for a proper trailer or even first gameplay, it will likely be years.

The Witcher 4 got its first trailer last year and is still expected to be 2 – 3 years away. As a result, maybe don’t hold your breath for a Cyberpunk 2 trailer until we’re a couple of years into the next console generation. Not only that, but CD Projekt is aware of the scrutiny they got for Cyberpunk 2077. A lot of the content they showed ahead of time either wasn’t in the final game or was heavily downgraded at release. As a result, the team is taking greater care not to oversell future games or make promises they can’t keep.

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