Development of the sequel to CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 will begin in 2023 with pre-production once the team has wrapped and shipped the original game’s upcoming DLC, Phantom Liberty.
Adam Kiciski, president and joint CEO of CD Projekt Red, says in its recent earnings report that the team is finishing up development of the expansion currently, of which almost 350 people are working on.
Thanks to the Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the game has had a second wind. As previously reported, Cyberpunk 2077 had more than a million people log in and, as of September 21, remained one of the top 10 most-played games on Steam.
That earnings report, which covered the third quarter of business for CD Projekt (July – September of this year), revealed that this was its best third quarter since its founding in the ‘90s.
The company brought in $54.2 million in revenue thanks to strong sales of Cyberpunk 2077, which the company will looking to replicate in its sequel.
It seems like the dark days of the game’s launch are far behind in the rearview mirror for gamers.
2023 won’t just be the start of pre-production for the next Cyberpunk, but may also bring a beloved entry in a beloved franchise to consoles. Capcom apparently plans to bring Monster Hunter Rise to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One next year.
Insider Gaming reported that the game will release January 20 on those platforms, as well as become available on Game Pass, followed by its expansion Sunbreak later in the spring. Capcom will supposedly unveil these plans at The Game Awards on December 8.
Monster Hunter Rise originally released in March 2021 for Nintendo Switch, with the game now on PC too.
What’s interesting about the news of it launching on console with Game Pass is that Xbox is supposedly working on its own Monster Hunter-like release according to a report from earlier this year.
In January, Jeff Grubb of GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb revealed that the title is codenamed Project Suerte, and is under development at Certain Affinity, a studio that has mainly done work supporting other games, including Xbox’s own Halo franchise, of which Certain Affinity is also rumored to be developing a battle royale game for its latest entry Halo Infinite.