With the holiday season now behind us, folks are settling back to work, including the CD Projekt Red team, who are kicking off the new year by kickstarting work on Project Orion, aka the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077.
Tweets by Cyberpunk 2077's narrative director Igor Sarzyński and quest director Paweł Sasko reveal that work on the next game in the dystopian sci-fi series has begun in earnest as the pair share their enthusiasm for what's to come.
"So good to meet old friends and officially kickstart our Orion journey," Sarzyński writes. "I couldn't be more excited for this project and I'm sure we can make it something special."
And seemingly, the team has big plans in store for the follow-up as Sarzyński finishes his post by describing the first game as "just a warm-up."
First day in the Boston office! So good to meet old friends and officially kickstart our Orion journey. I couldn't be more excited for this project and i'm sure we can make it something special. 2077 was just a warm-up 🔥January 8, 2024
Meanwhile, Sasko says that the core CD Projekt Red team got the year rolling with "exciting discussions" about the next Cyberpunk 2077 game. "Love this team and our dystopian IP!" they add.
Sooo good to be back in the office -- already in the snowy Boston! Our core band had exciting discussions about next #Cyberpunk2077 game. Love this team and our dystopian IP! 🔥On the picture: me & Sarah Gruemmer, Expert Quest Designer, who gave you Judy's storyline 🥰 pic.twitter.com/MOTC3Dy1SKJanuary 9, 2024
Cyberpunk 2077's one and only expansion, Phantom Liberty, launched in September last year and, according to its creators, has performed just as well as The Witcher 3's Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine DLC, despite the lengthy gap between Cyberpunk 2077's release and the expansion's arrival, as well as the base game's notoriously rocky launch.
CD Projekt Red has managed to turn things around in spectacular fashion, though, and its road to redemption culminated in not just Phantom Liberty but also the impressive 2.0 Update, which adds a host of new features to the main game, including revamped perks and cyberware, and vehicular combat.
The Cyberpunk 2077 sequel was confirmed back in October 2022, where CDPR said it will "prove the full power and potential of the Cyberpunk universe, and given what the team's already managed to achieve, that's certainly cause to get excited.
Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 2.1 continues the work Phantom Liberty did to bring Night City to life.