Cyberpunk Sequels Don’t Have to be Set in Night City, Senior Writer Says

Both in and out of games (more so the former), Cyberpunk as an IP has always been intrinsically linked to Night City, a futuristic uber-capitalistic fictional city that has frequently served as the central setting for Cyberpunk stories. That, of course, was the case in Cyberpunk 2077 as well, not to mention its acclaimed expansion, Phantom Liberty. But with CD Projekt RED now having started shifting focus to Cyberpunk 2 (or whatever the sequel will end up being named), it’s only natural to wonder- will it be set in Night City once again, just as the first game was?

Well, not necessarily. In a recent interview with GamingBolt, when asked if a future Cyberpunk game could potentially move away from Night City as a setting, Magda Zych – Senior Writer – Coordinator at CD Projekt RED – suggested that that could certainly be a possibility. According to Zych, a Cyberpunk game doesn’t necessarily have to be set in Night City, and “can take place anywhere that uber-capitalism develops”.

“As [Cyberpunk creator] Mike Pondsmith said, cyberpunk as a genre is a kind of warning of what might happen if we’re not careful as a race. It’s not such an abstract sci-fi idea,” she said. “I think these kinds of stories can take place anywhere that uber-capitalism develops, causing the collapse of societies. Night City is just a place like any other city, real or imagined.”

Currently, of course, not much is known about Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel (or Project Orion, as its currently codenamed), which makes sense, considering the fact that CDPR has only just wrapped up its work on the first game. Earlier this year, the developer said that the sequel was in the “conceptual design” stage. It’s set to be built on Unreal Engine 5, and will be developed by a newly-established team in North America comprising of several people who worked on the first game and its expansion.

Previously, the developer has also said that it hasn’t yet decided if the next Cyberpunk game will be first person like its predecessor. Read more on that through here.

Our full interview with Zych will go live soon, so stay tuned for that.