Project Orion is still a deeply mysterious game. We know it is a follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077, we know CD Projekt Red is developing the game in North America (Boston, specifically) as opposed to Poland where the main studio is based, and eventually development will expand to Vancouver, with support from the main Polish headquarters. Beyond those details, we don’t know much. Implications from CD Projekt point to it being a sequel, but it could be a spin-off, or something entirely different. Of note, Project Orion was a study from the 50s and 60s about the viability of nuclear power for space travel. Maybe that’s what CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 follow-up will be about.
We may not know much about the game, but based on a press release from CD Projekt this morning, we now know some of the folks who will be working on it. Dan Hernberg is now a Project Orion executive producer who was head of production at Amazon Games, and also has history at Panic Button and Blizzard Entertainment. Ryan Barnard was a game director at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft, but perhaps most notably, was the gameplay director at Hitman for developer IO Interactive. Barnard is joining Project Orion as a design director. Alan Villani is now an engineering director on Project Orion and worked on several Mortal Kombat titles. Anna Megill is a Project Orion lead writer with history on titles like Control, Dishonored: Death of The Outsider, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Guild Wars 2, and the upcoming Fable from Playground Games. Alexander Freed is an additional writer on Project Orion and is a New York Times bestselling novelist and comic book writer who previously worked at Bioware on Star Wars: The Old Republic and more.
We’re eager to learn more about Project Orion, but suspect it will be some time before we do. For more on Cyberpunk 2077, follow the link to read Game Informer’s review of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. You can also read about how CD Projekt has no interest in being acquired here.
