Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced in 2012, meaning its road to release and redemption stretched over a decade, and now, for the first time in 12 years, no one is working on the RPG.
CD Projekt Red developers worked on the game for years after release, pushing out patches to rectify 2077's buggy launch while also hammering away at the excellent Phantom Liberty expansion and 2.0 update. With Cyberpunk 2077 fully fixed and widely enjoyed, CD Projekt Red recently announced that 0 developers were on the project for the first time since its inception.
pic.twitter.com/YXZfbWZoIXMay 28, 2024
Alongside the company's latest financial results, CD Projekt Red detailed how its workforce was distributed with "over 400" developers working on The Witcher 4 (codenamed Polaris), 39 employees on Witcher spin-off Sirius, 20 on another standalone IP codenamed Hadar, and none on 2077 as of April 30, 2024.
Igor Sarzynski - 2077's narrative lead and the sequel's creative director - quickly took to social media to note that "Cyberpunk's not dead" even if the first game has now ended development. CDPR has big plans to continue the series with an upcoming Cyberpunk 2, only officially known by its codename Orion, which currently has 56 developers working on it.
With the majority of the studio molding another Witcher trilogy, details on the next romp through Night City are light, but fans can rest assured that Cyberpunk 2 is keeping most of the first game's senior developers to "preserve" the series' DNA while aiming to avoid the turbulent development that steered 2077's launch off-course.
Be sure to check out our recommendations for the 10 best games like Cyberpunk 2077 for more neon-soaked vibes.
Cyberpunk 2 associate game director reveals his greatest development secret: 10 hour loops of music like "Epic Sax Guy" that "gives me insane focus and clarity"
Before he was Cyberpunk 2's associate director and was just "employee #86," CDPR dev says it took him 46 tries to beat an infamous boss in The Witcher 2: "I was losing my mind"
