Today, CD Projekt RED announced a series of high-profile hires for the development team working on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel codenamed Project Orion.
- Dan Hernberg, formerly Head of Production at Amazon Games, Head of Production and Product Management at Panic Button, and Lead Product Manager at Blizzard Entertainment (as well as contributing to New World, Apex Legends, and Diablo III, among others), is joining the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel team as Executive Producer.
- Ryan Barnard is a new Design Director whose past credits include Game Director at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft, as well as Gameplay Director at Hitman developer IO Interactive.
- Alan Villani is entering the Project Orion team as Engineering Director, having previously been Vice President of Technology on various WB Game products, including technical direction on several Mortal Kombat games.
- Anna Megill, an award-winning game writer and author with 20 years of experience in video games, joins the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel team as Lead Writer. She recently worked on games like Control (Remedy), Dishonored: Death of The Outsider (Arkane), Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Ubisoft Massive), Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet), and the upcoming Fable (Playground Games).
- Alexander Freed will also join the writing team of Project Orion. The NY Times bestselling novelist, narrative designer, and comic book writer with 15+ years of game writing experience has previously worked as Lead Writer at BioWare on, among others, Star Wars: The Old Republic. He has also written and consulted for DICE, Obsidian Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast, and 20th Century Fox's games division FoxNext.
These new hires are joining the freshly established CD Projekt RED studio in Boston, Massachusetts, featuring Cyberpunk 2077 veterans including Gabriel Amatangelo (Game Director), Paweł Sasko (Associate Game Director), Igor Sarzyński (Creative Director), Andrzej Stopa (Cinematic Director), Kacper Niepokólczycki (Environment Art Director), Sarah Grümmer (Acting Lead Quest Designer) and Kacper Kościeński (Engineering Director).
Project Orion is now entering early development at the Boston office, and CD Projekt RED is looking to greatly expand the team in the coming years. You can check out all the available job openings on the official website.
Not much is known about the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, which is understandable due to the extremely early development stage. Chances are the game won't be out for another four or five years. However, CD Projekt RED did say the plan is to evolve the franchise similarly to The Witcher. Igor Sarzyński explained:
It’s impossible to nail everything on your first try. Now, with all the game elements iterated and working well, we’ll focus on connecting them even tighter and creating a coherent, total immersion experience.
Honestly, achieving the same level of improvement game to game of The Witcher trilogy would be nearly impossible, especially starting from the already excellent level of Cyberpunk 2077 2.0. Still, color us intrigued. CD Projekt RED will create The Witcher 4 and The Witcher remake first, though.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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