The controversial history of Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't seem to have disheartened CD Projekt Red's ambitions to expand their popular open-world sci-fi RPG. On Oct. 4, the Polish studio announced a sequel is coming at some point, and it's currently codenamed Project Orion. The news was announced alongside the developer's plans to release a game based on the studio's first brand new IP and an entire Witcher sequel trilogy over six years starting with Polaris.
CD Projekt Red teased their upcoming released plans in a new strategy presentation shared on Twitter, and the game was officially confirmed by Pawel Sasko, the Quest Director of Cyberpunk 2077, who has been one of the most public faces of the game and its resurgence in 2022. The developer shared an official description for the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 sequel: “Project Orion – Cyberpunk 2077 sequel that will prove the full power and potential of the Cyberpunk universe.”
CD Projekt Red also shared the following description for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel: "Orion is a codename for our next Cyberpunk game, which will take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe.”
The announcement also revealed that core team members from the original Cyberpunk 2077 are planning to move to the US where CDPR is launching a new studio. This new studio location in Boston will be the one primarily focused on Project Orion, and they will work with CDPR locations Warsaw and Vancouver.
Not much details have been revealed about Project Orion, but let's take a look at everything we know so far about the game, including a release date prediction, plot, gameplay details, and more updates. Note that we will update this article with more details as CDPR reveals more official updates for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Project Orion Release Date Prediction
Development for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel hasn't started yet, so it's likely that it will be released after the next Witcher game, where development has already started.
According to CDPR president and join CEO Adam Kiciński, the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, is at least three years away (from 2022), so it's likely that Project Orion will not be released until 2025 or later.
Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Project Orion Plot
CD Projekt Red hasn't shared plot details about the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. The Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, Phantom Liberty, still focuses on Johnny Silverhand and V, but if you've played the RPG (spoilers ahead), you'll know that V is doomed to die shortly after the events of the story no matter what ending you choose, so it seems unlikely that players would be taking the role of V again.
Project Orion will likely take place several years after the events of the first Cyberpunk 2077 game. Expect CDPR to share more details about the game's plot in a few years, but since development hasn't started yet, don't expect to find out more about Project Orion's story anytime soon. Hopefully, there will be story elements from the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in the sequel.
On Oct. 12, 2022, the official Twitter account of Cyberpunk 2077 announced a new novel set in the world of the game, titled Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence, written by Rafal Kosik. It's still unclear if any of the story elements in the novel will be adapted in the sequel, but hopefully, we'll see some references that will connect both titles.
Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Project Orion Gameplay
As part of the studio's same presentation that announced Project Orion, CD Projekt Red said that "most" of their game going forward will have a multiplayer component to help bolster the single-player experience. While it wasn't confirmed that the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel was one of those games, it seems likely given that a planned multiplayer spin-off was removed from the original production's timeline of post-launch Cyberpunk support. It's also likely that the studio would want some of the GTA Online revenue in the future.
As for the setting of the sequel, it's still unclear whether it will be set in the same Night City or if it will take players to a new location never featured in the first Cyberpunk 2077 game. Usually, sprawling single-player open world action-adventure games like this will not feature the same exact location twice, at least not twice in a row, so we might see an entirely new futuristic city in the sequel.
Is there already a trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Project Orion?
Since development for Project Orion hasn't officially started yet, don't expect a full trailer to come out within the next year or two. For now, you can watch the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077's expansion, Phantom Liberty here:
The DLC is set to release in 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Stadia.