You Won’t See a Cyberpunk 2 Trailer for 5 Years If You’re Lucky

Naturally, there have been some rumors about Project Orion, the game. It’s long been suggested that the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel will take place in a far-future version of Chicago, for example. Much more is known about Project Orion, the production, such as the central involvement of CD Projekt Red’s new Boston office for the sake of a more “authentically American” tone. The project also has some promising talent attached, such as the director of the Phantom Liberty DLC, as well as former Remedy and BioWare writers Anna McGill and Alexander Freed. The deck is stacked, but CDPR has stated that, having just begun pre-production this year, Project Orion probably can’t be expected to hit shelves before 2030 at the earliest. For better or worse, we probably won’t be seeing head or tail of the sequel until around that time too.

Why Project Orion’s Trailer Won’t Be Coming Anytime Soon

The Witcher 4 Comes First for CD Projekt Red

In the wake of Cyberpunk 2077‘s historically bad launch, CD Projekt Red was tasked with the impossible: spin gold from a technical and PR firebomb. Over the next few years, that’s precisely what the developer did, spending over $120 million to fix the game. It paid off, and now Cyberpunk is considered, on the whole, quite good.

But with that behemoth project done and dusted, CD Projekt Red will be pivoting its focus back to The Witcher, whose fourth entry was officially revealed at The Game Awards 2024 with a cinematic trailer. This is essentially all CDPR has shown of the game, but it’s more than anything else in the developer’s stable at the moment, indicating that it’s next up on the release slate. While no firm date has been scheduled, some of CD Projekt Red’s comments suggest that it could be out as early as 2027.

If we’re optimistic and figure that The Witcher 4 hits that 2027 release date, then it’s highly unlikely we’ll get a look at Project Orion until after that. This would be only two years after the start Project Orion‘s pre-production phase, for one thing, but it’s also unlikely that CDPR would want to cannibalize its own Witcher 4 hype with any Cyberpunk cross-chatter. Once The Witcher 4 is actually out, it could still be a while before CDPR shows off Project Orion. It’s also worth noting that CD Projekt Red is aiming to complete a full Ciri Trilogy within five years, meaning 2029 and 2031 could potentially be home to more Witcher releases, ensuring that it steals the spotlight for the foreseeable future.

CD Projekt Red Probably Wants to Avoid Repeating Cyberpunk History

The very first cinematic trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 was released in early 2013 to near-universal acclaim and excitement. One can easily understand why CD Projekt Red would choose to drop the dramatic, artful reveal when it did: the developer was riding high off the fantastic Witcher 2, and teasing such a radically different sci-fi project proved that it wasn’t a one-trick pony. It should be noted that CDPR had yet to release The Witcher 3 at this time, so expectations were nowhere near as high for Cyberpunk.

CD Projekt Red wouldn’t start full development of Cyberpunk 2077 until 2016, meaning that it had a fairly standard 4-year development. This is rather different from the public’s perception of the game’s production, which is that it would have initiated around the same time as the reveal trailer, thereby spanning 7 or 8 years. These sorts of assumptions led to audience discontent and impatience, alongside several claims about the project being in “development hell,” neither of which did much good for the project in the long run. Indeed, such variables may have actually contributed to Cyberpunk 2077‘s premature release. Needless to say, CD Projekt Red likely wants Project Orion‘s launch to go much differently.

Released

December 10, 2020

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol