CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 sequel has officially shed its Project Orion codename and will henceforth officially be known as Cyberpunk 2. That’s as the studio provides a development update, confirming it’s now entered the pre-production phase.
A Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, codenamed Project Orion, was formally announced back in 2022, and CD Projekt has been providing investors with progress updates on its development since then. Most recently, back in March, it revealed Project Orion was nearing the end of its concept phase and would be entering pre-production “in the coming weeks”. And now, as per the studio’s Q1 2025 earnings results, pre-production is officially underway.
Announcing its latest development milestone, CD Projekt also took the opportunity to jettison the sequel’s Project Orion codename and instead begin referring to it as Cyberpunk 2 – suggesting that might be the name it sticks with, barring an additional subtitle perhaps, right up to release and beyond. So bad luck if you had money on it being called Cyberpunk 2078.
Despite these notable developments, Cyberpunk 2’s team size has only seen a modest increase since the beginning of the year, with 96 developer now confirmed to be working on the project versus 84 in February. The bulk of the studio, as expected, is currently focused on The Witcher 4, with 422 employees assigned to the project. That’s compared to the modest 49 developers working on multiplayer The Witcher spin-off Project Sirius, and the 19 on Project Hadar – which is planned to be the studio’s first-ever original game.
All these production updates were accompanied by a number of sales milestones. Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Project Liberty has, for instance, now sold over 10m copies, while The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary – has seen over 60m sales.
As for what’s next, CD Projekt has been priming a Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 to release alongside the console next week, and a Mac port is also on the way. The Ciri-starring Witcher 4 is likely still some considerable way off, with the newly monikered Cyberpunk 2 – which will reportedly take players to second city like “Chicago gone wrong” – to follow.
