Cyberpunk 2 Enters Pre-Production – Locks Down Alan Wake And Dishonored Writers
CD PROJEKT, the investment arm of the game studio behind Cyberpunk 2077, recently revealed a bunch of company-related updates, from financial stats through to game details. Included in the report was news that a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 has officially entered pre-production.
Released in 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky start but went on to become one of the best-received RPGs in recent memory. However, in this day and age of AAA studios laying off staff and cancelling games, a sequel wasn’t assured.
“Several weeks ago the CD PROJEKT RED team responsible for the next big game set in the Cyberpunk universe completed the project’s conceptual phase,” the report said. “As a result, Cyberpunk 2, previously known under the codename Project Orion, has progressed to preproduction.”
What We Know About Cyberpunk 2 so Far
Of course, Cyberpunk 2 still has a long way to go before it hits the market so anything can happen in the meantime. However, some details have been released already related to the production. For example, the official X (Twitter) account of CD PROJEKT recently revealed how many developers are working on what projects, including 96 people on Cyberpunk’s sequel (as of April 2025).
While none of the individuals working on Cyberpunk 2 have been officially mentioned, the CD PROJEKT RED website does have a section for its new Massachusetts branch, with a reference to the sequel: “We’re coming to Boston with a new CD PROJEKT RED hub focused primarily around building the next Cyberpunk game.”
The site also has a bunch of job openings currently being advertised explicitly for Cyberpunk 2, including roles for programmers, engineers, and artists. This shows that it really is early days for the project, as a lot of the vacant positions are for core roles.
However, a few notable personnel have already been locked down, including Senior Writer Tony Elias (behind titles such as Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Alan Wake, and also Narrative Director for the canned Wonder Woman game from now-defunct Monolith Productions).
“I’m happy to share that I’ve joined the team at CD PROJEKT RED Boston as a Senior Writer. I’ll be working on the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077 (Project Orion) with an incredible team of devs. Looking forward to creating in that world!” he said in a post on LinkedIn in March 2025.
Some staff have experience with the first Cyberpunk game, including Paweł Sasko, Associate Game Director at CD PROJECKT RED, who worked on the base game and Phantom of Liberty expansion.
“I’m so damn hyped and grateful I can work on the next Cyberpunk, you cannot imagine,” he posted on LinkedIn recently.
The sequel’s Lead Writer is also locked-in: Anna Megill. She’s worked with top studios such as Remedy and Arkane on titles such as CONTROL and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
A Rough Start to Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020 to generally positive reviews, but players were quick to voice concerns about the number of bugs and jank still in the game, such as floating NPCs and broken quests.
CD PROJEKT RED also didn’t help itself when faced with accusations of crunch to get the game out, with Adam Kiciński, Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT, saying in an investment call shortly before launch:
“Regarding crunch; actually, it’s not that bad, and never was. Of course it’s a story that has been picked up by the media, and some people have been crunching heavily, but a large part of the team is not crunching at all since they have finished their work. It’s mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers, but it’s not that heavy.”
“Of course, it will be extended a bit, but we have feedback from the team; they’re happy about the extra three weeks, so we don’t see any threats regarding crunch,” he added.
However, he soon walked back these comments in an email to staff, after facing backlash for downplaying the very real, and very severe, crunch that his staff did experience: “I had not wanted to comment on crunch, yet I still did, and I did it in a demeaning and harmful way… What I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad.”
Time has been a lot kinder to the game itself, though, with it since receiving various critical reappraisals and awards, including the 2024 BAFTA Games Award for Best Evolving Game. It’s also going to be a launch title for the Switch 2, which includes the Phantom Liberty add-on.
