Cyberpunk 2 enters pre-production with 100 developers

Three years after the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red seems willing to turn the page. The developer has officially confirmed that Cyberpunk 2, the provisional name of the next game set in the Night City universe, has entered the pre-production phase with about 100 professionals already involved in the project.

The significant number indicates a significant escalation in the preparation of the new title. In contrast to the management and communication errors that occurred during the development of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red is now adopting a more structured pace. The studio is betting on next-generation technologies, including migrating to Unreal Engine 5, abandoning the proprietary engine REDengine used in previous titles.

"We are developing the new Cyberpunk based on the lessons learned from 2077. The goal is to deliver a smoother, deeper, and more immersive experience from day one," the company said in an internal statement.

The title is part of a long-term plan announced in October 2022, which includes several AAA projects. In addition to Cyberpunk 2 - also known by the codename Project Orion - the Polish company is also working on The Witcher 4, confirmed as the beginning of a new trilogy and fully focused on the new generation of consoles and PCs.

The team responsible for Orion is currently based at the new studio of CD Projekt Red North America, headquartered in Boston, and closely collaborates with the company's offices in Vancouver and Warsaw. The initiative marks the beginning of an international expansion of the studio, which seeks to decentralize its production and increase its delivery capacity on multiple fronts.

There is still no release date scheduled for Cyberpunk 2, and the developer avoids setting deadlines after the criticism surrounding the marketing of Cyberpunk 2077, announced in 2012 and released only in December 2020, with a series of performance issues, especially on last-gen consoles.

Despite the improvements brought by patch 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 is still remembered as a classic example of overhype and poor expectation management. Now, with a more robust structure and a more reserved internal schedule, CD Projekt Red seems to be trying to regain the trust of the public and specialized critics.

The new development cycle may indicate not only an evolution of the Cyberpunk franchise, but also a strategic redesign of CD Projekt Red itself as a global producer of large-scale RPGs.