Orion and Polaris projects move ahead
The nextCyberpunkgame from CD Projekt - currently codenamed “Orion” - might havemultiplayerin it, according to co-CEO Michal Nowakowski. Please let it be some kind of deckhead ‘passenger-seat-driver’ mode, where you get to play a crusty celeb uploaded to another character’s brain implants, who strolls around the landscape as a hologram, offering passive-aggressive commentary. Watch those corners, samurai! Hey, you missed an ammo pack. SAMURAI ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME.
All that’s from a little collection of CD Projekt quotes posted byReuters. According to CD Projekt’s other CEO, Adam Badowski, the next Witcher game - codenamed “Polaris” - should enter the production phase this year. “We’d like to have around 400 people working on the project by the middle of the year”, he said. It’s the first ina series of Witcher releases, including an “an innovative take on The Witcher universe” from The Molasses Flood.
As for the new Cyberpunk game, little is known other than that itwon’t necessarily be first-person, though CD Projekt members have shared a few thoughts onhow they will avoid a repeat of Cyberpunk 2077’s infamous crunch conditions and disastrous launch.
The Reuters piece includes some exceedingly brief commentary on the company’s hiring plans. Nowakowski says CD Projekt will continue to expand in North America, having set up a new studio there last year; hiring in Poland, however, will be “rather low”. Like many of the games industry’s largest outfits, CD Projektlaid off a substantial number of peoplelast year, prompting some Polish employees toform a new unionin the hopes of “having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis.”
In surely encouraging news, CD Projekt have also recently set up a team to explore how they could use generative AI tools in game development. “We think that AI is something that can help improve certain processes in game production, but not replace people,” Nowakowski told Reuters. The grim near-future depicted by the Cyberpunk games doesn’t exactly bear this idea out, as you’ll know if you’ve ever flagged down a Delamain cab.
