Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way over its lifetime, receiving a massive turnaround in public perception after its developers stuck with the game long enough to fix its largest issues. From redesigning Cyberpunk 2077‘s entire progression system to patching out countless bugs and performance issues, CD Project Red has managed to transform Cyberpunk into what was originally promised in its marketing material. With Cyberpunk 2077‘s sequel, Project Orion, reportedly in development, CD Project Red has everything it needs to avoid the catastrophic mistakes of its past.

While Cyberpunk 2077‘s massive updates helped rework its public perception, projects like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners boosted it to even greater heights, especially after adding in-game content that references the popular show, like David Martinez’s Jacket. Unfortunately, there are no release dates for either of Cyberpunk 2077 and Edgerunners‘ sequels, but plenty more to come from the beloved universe. Although Project Orion is still only in its early stages of development and far from an official launch, a recent job posting has raised some concerns over the future of the sequel.

CD Project Red’s Goals Are Eerily Similar To Cyberpunk 2077

Too Much Ambition Could Harm Cyberpunk’s Future

According to an official job listing by CD Project Red, the studio is looking for a Lead Encounter Designer. One of the goals is “to create the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date.” While this description doesn’t sound harmful on its own, it’s fairly similar to some of the promises made during Cyberpunk 2077‘s development. The latter’s overly ambitious nature weakens other aspects of the game.

To give credit to CD Project Red, the information’s source as a job description is drastically different from a public marketing campaign, with the latter being more likely to make ambitious promises to generate excitement. Even without every feature promised leading up to Cyberpunk 2077‘s release, it’s still one of the most immersive open-world games out there, made even better with its current improvements. It’s hard to imagine how many improvements could be made to Cyberpunk 2077‘s background NPCs without impacting performance too significantly, but hopefully, CD Project Red will have plenty of time to find solutions before its release.

Cyberpunk 2077’s Scale Was Its Biggest Downfall

Overlooking The Basics Of What Makes A Good Game

Even before Cybernpuk 2077‘s launch, there was concern that the game was simply too ambitious to deliver everything it promised, making its numerous delays less than surprising. Given how massive an undertaking Cyberpunk 2077 was on its own, on top of being a significant departure from CD Project Red’s past work with The Witcher series, it was bound to face problems when it was finally released. The unrealistic deadlines and inflating expectations over its massive game world were the most likely culprits to Cyberpunk 2077‘s disastrous launch, with performance and key features taking a backseat to its expansive world.

Unrealistic deadlines and inflating expectations over its massive game world.

One of the issues with Cyberpunk’s ambitious scale is that, although engaging, many of Cyberpunk 2077‘s sidequests felt disconnected from the story and themes it was trying to tell. Although even with the issues with V completing fetch quests while suffering from a life-threatening ailment, the tone of the game and its character writing were consistently excellent throughout. Despite its poor initial reception, the enhanced framework did have the benefit of allowing future updates to build upon its initial foundation that could match what the project sought to accomplish in the first place.

Project Orion Has The Potential To Be CD Project Red’s Best Game Yet

Further Developing Cyberpunk 2077’s Successful Formula

While it took a significant financial and time commitment to bring Cyberpunk 2077 to its current state, it helped repair perceptions of its developers, much like No Man’s Sky‘s own legendary comeback story. With every game from CD Project Red somehow managing to be more ambitious than the last, the upcoming Project Orion seems to be no exception to the trend, based on the goals of its developers. Although Project Orion will likely be under additional scrutiny after the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Project Red has all the experience it needs to deliver another legendary game right out of the gate.

After the years it took to bring Cyberpunk 2077 up to the overwhelmingly positive reviews it’s managed to achieve, CD Project Red claims to have taken great lengths to not repeat Cyberpunk 2077’s mistakes with the upcoming release of The Witcher 4. It seems one of the ways The Witcher 4 will achieve this feat is by taking a more conservative approach to its scale, as its map will reportedly be roughly the same size as its predecessor.

The longer time in the oven could be just what the studio needs to deliver its best game to date.

With Project Orion‘s development focus taking a greater focus after The Witcher 4 finally releases, it’s the perfect chance for its developers to showcase the lessons they’ve learned from Cyberpunk 2077​​​​ when it comes to delivering quality over quantity, best seen in its highly rated Phantom Liberty expansion. While Project Orion likely won’t see the light of day for some time, given The Witcher 4‘s ongoing development, the longer time in the oven could be just what the studio needs to deliver its best game to date while tying up the biggest unsolved mysteries in Cyberpunk 2077‘s story.