Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Cyberpunk 2 has officially entered pre-production, developer CD Projekt has confirmed.
The studio made the announcement as part of its latest financial results, where it said the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 had hit an impressive 10 million copies sold.
96 of CD Projekt’s 730 developers are now working on Cyberpunk 2, it added. The majority of the staff (422) is working on The Witcher 4, which is in full production.
"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," CD Projekt said. "As a result, Cyberpunk 2 – previously known under the codename Project Orion – has progressed to pre-production."
What is pre-production ? In the world of AAA development, pre-production can involve everything from fleshing out concepts to planning full production, building prototypes to staffing up studios. It can often take years to complete.
In an investor call following the release of the company's financial report, CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski responded to the suggestion Cyberpunk 2 won't release until late 2030 or even early 2031, and Nowakowski failed to rule that release window out.
"I can reiterate in a way what I said in one of the previous calls, which was basically that our journey from pre-production to final release takes four to five years on average," Nowakowski said.
"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."
Cyberpunk 2 still sounds a long way off, then. Indeed, so does The Witcher 4. But we at least now know what CD Projekt is calling the game, after it was referred to previously as its codename, Orion.
We know next to nothing about Cyberpunk 2, but earlier this month Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith teased some previously unknown details. Pondsmith, who worked closely with CD Projekt on the 30 million-selling Cyberpunk 2077 and was involved in promoting the game ahead of its 2020 launch, was asked about the scope of his involvement with Orion at the Digital Dragons 2025 conference.
Responding, Pondsmith admitted he wasn’t as involved this time around, but said he does review scripts and had been to CD Projekt to check out the ongoing work.
“Last week I was wandering around talking to different departments, and seeing what they had, ‘Oh look, this is the new cyberware, what do you think?’ ‘Oh yeah, that’s pretty good, that works here.’ "
And then, the morsel on the sequel: that it features a brand new city in addition to the Night City we know from Cyberpunk 2077. Pondsmith described this new city as “like Chicago gone wrong.”
“I spent a lot of time talking to one of the environment guys, and he was explaining how the new place in Orion, because there’s another city we visit — I’m not telling you any more than that but there’s another city we visit. And Night City is still there. But I remember looking at it and going, yeah I understand the feel you’re going for this, and this really does work. And it doesn’t feel like Blade Runner, it feels more like Chicago gone wrong. I said, ‘Yeah, I can see this working.'”
It’s worth pointing out that Pondsmith’s comments do not necessarily suggest the Cyberpunk sequel will feature a future Chicago, rather a city that has the feel of a dystopian version of the city. It may well be a take on future Chicago, but that isn’t confirmed based on these comments.
There is also already some debate about whether Cyberpunk 2 will expand upon the Night City that’s in Cyberpunk 2077 or feature a new version, and the extent to which it is playable. There are a lot of unknowns, but it looks like there may be two fleshed out playable cities in this sequel at the very least.
It's a hugely busy time for CD Projekt, of course. There’s a new Cyberpunk animation project on Netflix following the well-received Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in the works. In the shorter term, Cyberpunk 2077 is set to launch on Nintendo Switch 2 next month.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
