Cyberpunk 2: Everything we know about CD Projekt Red’s sequel
Cyberpunk 2, the current name for the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077, is officially in pre-production.
In fact, CD Projekt Red confirmed in 2025 that development is in pre-production at CD Projekt Red, having progressed beyond its original concept phase. First announced as Project Orion, the sequel is being developed by a growing team, although there's still no confirmed release date just yet.
Nearly six years after the original game's troubled launch, the circumstances could hardly be more different. Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold over 40 million copies, bolstered by years of updates and the critically acclaimed Phantom Liberty expansion. With that massive established base to build on, we imagine Cyberpunk 2’s going to be even bigger and ideally far more polished than its predecessor — though CD Projekt Red hasn’t revealed everything for now.
Between official development updates, comments from the people making the game, and hints tucked away in recruitment adverts, here's what we know so far. This article was last updated on 21 October, 2026.
What is the latest Cyberpunk 2 development update?
CD Projekt Red originally announced its Cyberpunk 2077 sequel on 4 October 2022, promising to explore more of the universe created by tabletop game designer Mike Pondsmith.
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The next major milestone arrived in May 2025, when CD Projekt Red revealed its development team had completed the conceptual stage several weeks earlier and moved into pre-production. In layman’s terms, the team had started working out the game's design, technology and production requirements before the bulk of development that comes with full-scale production gets underway.
The workforce has expanded noticeably, as well. CDPR reported 96 developers assigned to the project in April 2025, later rising to 184 by the end of July 2026 - confirmed in the company’s H1 2026 Earnings report.
Game director Gabe Amatangelo subsequently confirmed via a CD Projekt Red blog in October that ‘more than 180 developers’ were working on the sequel.
The project is led primarily from the studio's Boston operation, with support from Vancouver and other CDPR teams, as reported by Gamespot.
In addition, recruitment efforts in 2024 included senior roles covering environments, cinematics, visual effects and combat design.
If you’re unfamiliar with some of the team, Amatangelo previously directed Phantom Liberty and was involved in the major improvements made to Cyberpunk 2077. Associate game director Paweł Sasko and creative director Igor Sarzyński are among the returning senior developers, as confirmed by CD Projekt Red's February 2024 announcement.
Speaking to GAMINGbible in 2024, executive producer Maciej Włodarkiewicz said: “We would like to develop and deliver with Project Orion even more than what was in Cyberpunk, from the beginning,” teasing the studio's ambitions for the follow-up.
In March 2026, CDPR revealed it had invested a combined 513 million+ Polish złoty in future projects during 2025, chiefly The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2. Converted, that’s around $131.5 million or £98.8 million.
What is Project Orion, and is Cyberpunk 2 the official title?
Project Orion was the codename used when CD Projekt Red first unveiled the sequel in 2022, before being later given away as Cyberpunk 2 in the company’s own financial reports, but this doesn’t mean it will be the official title for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
Speaking to The Verge in May 2025, CDPR senior PR manager Ola Sondej clarified: “‘Cyberpunk 2’ just means it’s another game in the Cyberpunk universe.”
In other words, Cyberpunk 2 is the name being used publicly during development, not the final title the game will have when it hits store shelves. It's an important distinction given how the original game, Cyberpunk 2077, takes its name from the year in which its story unfolds.
As previously covered by GAMINGbible, fans have suggested alternatives such as Cyberpunk 2084 or Cyberpunk 2099, but these remain guesses. CDPR has not revealed when the sequel takes place, either.
Where will Cyberpunk 2 be set and what could the story cover?
Thankfully for fans, it seems like Night City isn't disappearing from the series, after Pondsmith discussed Cyberpunk 2 in an interview at Poland's Digital Dragons conference in May 2025, hinting at how Chicago will be an important factor in the sequel’s location.
As shared by tvgry on YouTube, just after the three-hour and forty-five-minute mark, Pondsmith said he had visited the development studio and seen environmental work for the new location. He confirmed that ‘Night City is still there’, but offered a more unusual description of its counterpart.
He added: “It doesn't feel like Blade Runner; it feels more like Chicago gone wrong.”
Of course, this quickly fuelled theories that Chicago itself could be the second city. Plus, as pointed out by Eurogamer, it fuelled theories that Chicago itself could be the second city. There are connections in established Cyberpunk lore, too, including references to a transport network linking Night City and Chicago.
Nevertheless, Pondsmith didn't identify the location by name, and the size or significance of either city has not been disclosed, either, so we’ll still need to wait until CD Projekt Red officially dishes out some extra information.
Pondsmith didn't identify the location by name, and the size or significance of either city has not been disclosed.
As for the story, CDPR has yet to introduce a protagonist or reveal when the sequel's events occur. There is no confirmation that V will return, that Johnny Silverhand will appear again, or that one of Cyberpunk 2077's multiple endings will be treated as canon.
Interestingly, though, in the same aforementioned report by Gamespot, Sasko previously discussed the importance of respecting players' decisions rather than invalidating the stories they created.
He said: “If you in your story have made a certain choice and that’s the way you have decided to go with your V and your partners and whoever else you met in the game, that’s your story.
“It’s important when making those decisions not to invalidate what players have been doing because it is their story and the decisions they made.”
With that, while it may sound ambitious to make Cyberpunk 2 react to all the major game-changing choices you made back in 2077, CD Projekt Red is determined to make it so.
What do we know about Cyberpunk 2 gameplay and multiplayer?
No actual Cyberpunk 2 gameplay has been shown as of yet, so returning features, new combat mechanics, and the structure of its open world are still unknown. Nevertheless, the technology and jobs being advertised, like the sequel’s narrative team being after ‘gifted storytellers’ on LinkedIn, are starting to provide some clues about the experience CDPR wants to create.
A new game engine and more responsive world
Unlike Cyberpunk 2077, which was built using CDPR's own REDengine, the sequel will use Unreal Engine 5.
The developer confirmed the engine choice in its October 2022 investor chat and has continued recruiting engineers specifically to work with and develop its technology, as in the job description for the Engineering Director position currently available.
Another particularly ambitious recruitment advert for a Lead Encounter Designer referred to creating ‘the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date’, as pointed out by Video Games Chronicle in 2025.
As for what this means for Cyberpunk 2, it suggests a renewed focus on how pedestrians and other characters respond to what happens around them, a notable area of criticism when Cyberpunk 2077 originally launched.
CDPR has also discussed changing how its teams work together, following lessons learned during production of the original game. During an official AnsweRED podcast interview, Sarzyński explained how the studio had adopted shorter planning cycles and closer collaboration between disciplines, with those changes having been refined during Phantom Liberty.
Will Cyberpunk 2 have multiplayer?
At the time of writing, Cyberpunk 2 has not been confirmed to have multiplayer, but some reports have shown that adding it to the sequel of the purely single-player Cyberpunk 2077 could be on the cards.
In April 2025, GAMINGbible reported on a Senior Gameplay Programmer advertisement seeking experience with systems supporting both single-player and multiplayer.
Further evidence appeared in September 2025, when a Lead Network Engineer job (pointed out by Gamespot) listing referenced online infrastructure, including matchmaking. CDPR had also outlined ambitions to introduce multiplayer into many of its future projects back in 2022.
On the other hand, whilst those requirements suggest CDPR is at least preparing technology that could support multiplayer, they do not establish what players will ultimately get — be it co-op missions, competitive modes, and/or an online version of Night City.
When could Cyberpunk 2 be released and which platforms will get it?
A Cyberpunk 2 release date has not been announced, and CD Projekt Red has yet to provide an official launch window, but estimations given by joint CDPR CEO Michał Nowakowski make late 2030 or early 2031 the most likely timeframe so far.
This came during a May 2025 investor call (via PC Gamer), where Nowakowski said: “I can reiterate in a way what I said in one of the previous calls, which was basically that our journey from pre-production to final release takes four to five years on average.”
Still, he immediately went on to caution that every project faces different circumstances and declined to commit to a particular year.
As for what platforms will be supporting Cyberpunk 2, no direct confirmation has been given either, though the PS5, Xbox Series X, and modern PCs are the predicted baseline so far.
With the 2030s as a very rough predicted release window, it’s very likely the upcoming Xbox Helix and unannounced PS6 could be additional platforms for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel as well — as there have been plenty of predictions both systems would be out well before then, like with claims that the PlayStation 6 would be out in late 2027.
Be that as it may, any statements that can be made on Cyberpunk 2’s platforms are all mere speculation for now.
Topics: Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red