CD Projekt Red wants the Cyberpunk series to evolve like The Witcher has

Fresh out of the launch of Cyberpunk 2077’s highly anticipated DLC expansion, Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt Red has its sights set on the future of the Cyberpunk series, and according to narrative director Igor Sarzyński, the studio is aiming for it to somewhat follow in the footsteps of The Witcher.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Sarzyński explained that the developers are hoping that the Cyberpunk series will evolve in a “similar” way to The Witcher games. He said: “Consider The Witcher games and how much they changed with each installment. We want a similar evolution here.”

Explaining the way forward, Sarzyński noted that Cyberpunk 2077 was the team’s “first venture into a futuristic sci-fi world”, and it pushed the developers with new mechanics and themes that they’d not explored before. Everyone knows that the 2020 open-world RPG didn’t exactly hit the mark when it first launched, and Sarzyński acknowledged this, too.

“Some of the stuff worked almost right out of the box, such as the art, city design, music, interactive scene system, playstyles,” he said. “Other aspects took more time to get right, like character progression, NPC interactivity, and optimization. That’s natural; it’s impossible to nail everything on your first try.”

However, in the time since Cyberpunk 2077’s shaky launch, the developers have rolled out numerous updates that have brought the game up to scratch. In addition to improving the player experience, these updates have also put the team in a good position going forward.

“Now with all the game elements iterated and working well, we’ll focus on connecting them even tighter and creating a coherent, total immersion experience,” said Sarzyński.

Phantom Liberty released at the end of September, and takes place during the main Cyberpunk 2077 story. Last week, it was revealed that the devs never planned to have an expansion set after the original endings, since they’re too varied to make any sort of continuation viable from a narrative design perspective.

If you’re looking for some new games to play that are similar to Cyberpunk 2077, look no further than our recommendations for the best open-world games on PC and the best RPGs.