The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 needs to be more dystopian developing it in the USA will help
CD Projekt is working with a team in Boston following Cyberpunk 2077 and wants to make a more dystopian game and, above all, thinks being in the US will help.
Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, a fictional dystopian metropolis where corporations rule and the law of the strongest reigns, but developer CD Projekt RED feels it hasn’t gone far enough with the dystopia in the video game and wants to better capture the problems facing Americans in the sequel , codenamed Orion, which is currently in development at CDPR’s new studio in Boston . The first game was developed in Poland, remember.
In a new episode of the AnsweRED Podcast, Pawel Sasko, associate director of the upcoming Cyberpunk, spoke about the topic, also explaining how moving the game’s production to the US helped.
The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 needs to be more dystopian developing it in the USA will help
The US will help the team create a better sequel to Cyberpunk 2077
“I think we didn’t push it enough in some areas,” Sasko said. “For example, with the homelessness crisis , when I look at it, I think we didn’t handle it right in Cyberpunk 2077. We thought we were dystopian, but we only scratched the surface.”
Dan Hernberg, executive producer of the Cyberpunk sequel, joked that Cyberpunk 2077 had “one homeless person in a tent somewhere” and that the team thought that was enough, only to be told by Americans that they would need “an entire city” of homeless people in Night City to capture the country’s homelessness crisis. Sasko says that living in America has given him a better perspective on how widespread these problems are.
Sasko also says that working on Orion in America will help them to notice discrepancies that might seem less impactful but are valuable, such as how manhole covers are made, street lamps, how dumpsters are positioned along the streets. He admits that in Poland and more generally in Europe things are different than in the US and therefore having a clearer vision (also from a cultural point of view, not only of objects) of the nation in which Cyberpunk is set can only be helpful.