Exclusive: Cyberpunk 2077 Devs Shift Focus to Highly Anticipated Sequel - Insider Information Revealed

Highlights

Cyberpunk 2077 will no longer receive major updates, as the development team shifts its focus to the game's sequel, codenamed Project Orion, in Unreal Engine 5.

The Phantom Liberty DLC has just been released, offering players a captivating story campaign, exciting side jobs and gigs, a fresh location to explore, and intriguing new characters to encounter. This latest addition has received glowing reviews from fans, effectively restoring CD Projekt Red's reputation. Despite the game's disastrous launch, which resulted in unplayability, removal from the Playstation Store, financial losses, backlash, lawsuits, and employee crunch, the upcoming sequel is seen as an opportunity for CDPR to redeem itself and gain valuable lessons from past mistakes.

CD Projekt Red has announced that Cyberpunk 2077 will no longer receive significant updates as the focus shifts to developing the game's sequel. The latest updates, Update 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty DLC, mark the end of major updates for the game.

The Phantom Liberty DLC introduces an extensive story campaign that takes roughly 10-15 hours to complete. Additionally, players can engage in new side jobs and gigs. The expansion allows players to revisit Night City and discover a new location called Dogtown in the chaotic Pacifica. Along the way, players will encounter new characters including Idris Elba's character, Solomon Reed, a spy, and even the president of the New United States.

According to an interview conducted by Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer, Gabe Amatangelo, the game director of Cyberpunk 2077, stated that there are no plans in place for significant updates or new expansions to the game's storyline. The recent releases of Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0 effectively mark the beginning of the game's final phase following a seven-year journey. Instead, the development team will subsequently shift their focus towards addressing various bug fixes before commencing work on the sequel.

Project Orion is the codename for Cyberpunk 2077 2, the highly anticipated sequel. CDPR has announced their intentions to develop the game using Unreal Engine 5. Leading the project is Amatangelo, a seasoned RPG veteran with ten years of experience at EA, including time spent at renowned studios like Mythic Entertainment and BioWare.

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was nothing short of a disaster. The game was virtually unplayable on certain consoles, leading Sony to make the unprecedented decision of removing the game from the Playstation Store. As a result, CDPR's stock plummeted and the company suffered a loss of $1 billion. The fallout from fans, investors, and even members of the development team was immense, with backlash, lawsuits, and revelations of employee crunching. Considering these circumstances, the fact that a sequel is being planned and worked on can only be described as miraculous.

Since its Christmas launch almost three years ago, CD Projekt Red has followed in the footsteps of other developers, like Hello Games, to achieve redemption for their games. The recent 2.0 update has brought much-needed improvements to Night City, including a complete revamp of vehicle combat and the introduction of a transmog system. The release of Phantom Liberty, accompanied by the highly positive reviews, along with Update 2.0, is being praised as the game that should have been delivered upon launch. This success has helped CDPR regain the goodwill of fans and the wider gaming community, although only time will reveal if they have truly learned from their past mistakes.

Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: PC Gamer