CDPR wants Cyberpunk 2077 to follow in the footsteps of The Witcher

This unique behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming RPG comes 13 months after the studio revealed that a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 was already in the works under the name Project Orion, even though the original game was still on shaky foundations at the time.

Let's remember that Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated games of the last decade, but it had a lot of bugs and unfinished content when it was released. With further corrections, especially with the comprehensive update 2.0, it won back a certain amount of trust it deserved. However, they recently released a new DLC, Phantom Liberty, which was very well received by critics.

With the release of new content for Cyberpunk 2077, studio CDPR has no immediate projects to complete in the near future. This means that the developers can fully devote themselves to the continuation of the Cyberpunk 2077 games and the fourth part of The Witcher franchise.

Will Cyberpunk 2077 follow the development of The Witcher series?

Although the company won't be able to share extensive information about their upcoming games in the near future, their developers sometimes can't hold back and reveal some juicy detail. For example, CDPR director of management and audio engineering Colin Walder recently revealed that the development of The Witcher 4 is quite different from the development of Cyberpunk 2077. A lot of attention is being paid to running on the PlayStation and Xbox game consoles, which was one of the main problems when the release of the original game. During development, they will perform several demo tests, which will solve any bugs on the fly.

At the same time, the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 will try to imitate the development of The Witcher series. This was confirmed by CDPR's Story Design Director Igor Sarzynski in a recent interview with PC Gamer. Sarzynski highlighted how The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings offered a radically different experience than the first installment in the franchise. They kept the good elements of the second game, but for the third game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, they specifically changed the way to play and explore the world. CDPR aims for a "similar evolution" between Cyberpunk 2077 and its successor, Sarzynski explained.

While the next Cyberpunk game will aim to offer a comparable but improved experience, it's still entirely possible that these evolutions will be tackled quite differently from The Witcher 2. “Certain elements [in Cyberpunk 2077] such as the art, the city design, the music, the interactive scene system, the gameplay styles, they worked almost immediately,” Sarzynski said, hinting that the second game could leave those elements more or less intact. The skill upgrade system and NPC interactivity could also appear without major changes. The CDPR is said to be satisfied with them. However, they emphasized that it took a lot of time to develop both systems and that they were reworked several times during development.

They have experience, they must not repeat the mistakes

All of these aspects of the game that Sarzynski praises were last revamped in September 2023, when the developer released a massive update 2.0 for Cyberpunk 2077. The update brought the game closer to CDPR's original vision. But now the company is apparently confident enough to try again in this dystopian RPG genre. This time they have the advantage of not starting from scratch. They have the foundations, they know what they did wrong and what they did right, or what the players want. And they certainly won't repeat the same mistakes, starting with a lot of promises that they know they can't possibly deliver on time.

We won't know for a while whether they will succeed. The game's sequel is barely in the conceptual design phase. Everyone, including us in the editorial office, wants the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and the fourth Witcher to exceed all expectations. CDPR has proven to be a great storyteller so far, and we can't wait to play as a creature hunter and outlaw on the streets of Cyberpunk again.