CD Projekt Red welcomes Diablo 3, Hitman, and Control veterans to work on Cyberpunk 2077 sequel

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

CD Projekt Red has welcomed several developers to the studio to work on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, Project Orion

In a press release published on February 6, the studio announced that several high-profile members have officially joined the team and are now working on Project Orion, which is currently in the "early stages of development" and is being headed by CD Projekt Red North America. 

Studio veterans who have worked on Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion will be spearheading the project as part of a larger team based in Boston, Massachusetts, including game director Gabriel Amatangelo, associate game director Paweł Sasko, creative director Igor Sarzyński, acting lead quest designer Sarah Grümmer, and more.

Joining the team are long-time game developers who have worked for the likes of Blizzard Entertainment, Ubisoft, Remedy Entertainment, and BioWare. Among them is Dan Hernberg as executive producer, who was previously lead product manager at Blizzard and head of production at Amazon Games, and was a contributor on titles like Diablo 3, Apex Legends, and New World.

The team is also welcoming Ryan Barnard as design director, who acted as game director at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft, as well as gameplay director at Hitman studio IO Interactive. 

Real-time ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077

(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

Award-winning game writer and author Anna Megill will be working on Project Orion as the lead writer following her work on Remedy Entertainment's Control, Arkane's Dishonored: Death of The Outsider, the recently released Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and the upcoming Fable game.

Alan Villani has joined as engineering director - after previously lending his skills on several Mortal Kombat titles as vice president of technology on a number of WB Game products - while Alexander Freed will "further bolster the writing for Project Orion". Freed is is known for working as the lead writer at BioWare on titles like Star Wars: The Old Republic, and is also a New York Times bestselling novelist, narrative designer, and comic book writer with over 15 years of game-writing experience.

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