Highlights

  • CD Projekt Red has hired five industry veterans with extensive experience in the gaming industry to work on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
  • Leaked details suggest that the sequel, code-named Orion, is still in early production but could feature a crafting system and open-world events.
  • The new hires include former employees of major studios such as Ubisoft, Bioware, and Blizzard, raising optimism for the sequel and showing CDPR's ambition to surpass the original game.

Developer CD Projekt Red has just announced several new additions to the team working on its follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077, including former employees of major studios with combined decades of experience in the industry. Cyberpunk 2077 was released back in 2020, and although it experienced a shaky start, it's since become a hit with fans of action RPGs. Now, it seems the studio is well into the early stages of work on a sequel.

Just this week, leaks revealed gameplay details about the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, including that it will include a crafting system and open-world events. The game, code-named Orion, appears to still be very early in its production, but it's clear that work on the title has begun. Now, in addition to these new leaks, CDPR is sharing official information about its development.

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CDPR has revealed that it has hired five industry veterans to work on the Cyberpunk sequel. The new hires are Dan Hernberg as Executive Producer, Ryan Barnard as Design Director, Alan Vilani as Engineering Director, Anna Megill as Lead Writer, and Alexander Freed as a Writer. Collectively, these five have worked on dozens of games across many different AAA developers over the years, and CDPR expressed excitement about having them bring their talent and experience to the team.

New CDPR Hires Include Former Ubisoft, Bioware, and Blizzard employees

Cyberpunk 2077 Johnny Silverhand sitting down
  • Dan Hernberg - former Lead Project Manager at Blizzard Entertainment
  • Ryan Barnard - former Game Director at Ubisoft
  • Alan Vilani - former VP of Technology for multiple WB games, including Mortal Kombat titles
  • Anna Megill - former writer on numerous games, including Control and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
  • Alexander Freed - novelist, comic book writer, and game writer with credits including Star Wars: The Old Republic

A quick glance at the credits of these new team members reveals an impressive set of resumes that should boost the optimism of Cyberpunk fans with high hopes for the sequel. Last month, a Cyberpunk sequel dev claimed the original was "just a warm-up," and based on the new team being put together, it seems CDPR is holding to that statement.

Last December, other CDPR devs promised that Cyberpunk 2 intends to expand on the life paths feature this time around, offering another concrete example of the development team's ambition for this game. Between leaks about planned features, bold statements from the dev team, and the new talent being brought on board, it's apparent that CDPR is looking to make this sequel truly exceptional and something to surpass the original.

CDPR's franchise may have gotten off to a rough start, but the developer put in an impressive amount of work to turn things around and save the future series. Numerous updates and patches fixed the various bugs present at launch, and some have argued that the Phantom Liberty DLC concluded Cyberpunk's redemption. Now, the studio is turning its attention to the sequel and hiring new talent to support it.