Though CD Projekt RED’s initial plan for Cyberpunk 2077’s post-launch seemed to be similar to how the developer handled The Witcher 3, things haven’t quite turned out that way. Where The Witcher 3 received two full-fledged expansions after its launch, last year, CD Projekt RED confirmed that the upcoming Phantom Liberty will be Cyberpunk 2077’s first and only expansion.
During CD Projekt’s recent quarterly earnings conference, the company touched on that decision and explained why it decided to only develop one expansion for the cyberpunk action RPG.
Upon being asked during the conference’s Q&A session what level of commercial success Phantom Liberty would need to see for CD Projekt RED to greenlight a second expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, senior VP of business development Michał Nowakowski said that Phantom Liberty will be the RPG’s only expansion regardless of sales, and that the decision was made not based on commercial factors, but because, with CD Projekt RED switching to Unreal Engine 5 for its future projects, the expansion is set to be the developer’s final project built on its internal RED Engine.
“The decision has actually been made already, as we announced a long time ago,” said Nowakowski. “We’re not going to make a second or third expansion. This is the only expansion of the game. It has nothing to do with the numbers or how satisfied or not we are with sales, or anything of the kind. It’s technological, the decision, to be honest. This is the last time we’re working on the RED Engine, for the time being. At least for the foreseeable future, as you know, we are working on the Unreal Engine from Epic, and this was one of the key reasons why we decided this is the only one.”
Beyond Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt RED has a number of major new projects in the works, all of which will be built on Unreal Engine 5, including Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Project Orion, the next mainline Witcher title (which will kickstart a new trilogy), and Project Hadar, the studio’s first ever new, internal IP, which is also going to be an RPG.
Additionally, in collaboration with Fool’s Theory – a third party studio comprised of former CDPR vets – the developer is also working on an open world remake of the original Witcher title, which is also using Unreal Engine 5.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is due out on September 26 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. CD Projekt RED has said it’s “very happy” with its pre-order numbers, and has also confirmed that a “big part” of the expansion’s development team will be shifted over to the next mainline Witcher game.
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