while also establishing a new studio in the United States.
With plans to establish a new studio and hire hundreds of people for Cyberpunk 2077: Orion, CD Projekt Red appears to be significantly stepping up its game development capacity.
CD Projekt Red CFO Piotr Nielubowicz stated during an investors’ call that he anticipates 350 to 500 developers would be required to produce the game after the company unveiled Orion alongside multiple Witcher games.
Additionally, it is establishing a brand-new studio for Orion with a focus on Boston. This studio will merge with CD Projekt Red’s present Vancouver office to form CD Projekt Red North America.
Though talent from its Polish studios will also be assisting with the game (including Cyberpunk 2077’s lead quest designer Paweł Sasko, who is moving to Boston for it), the Vancouver studio only had around 12 team members when it was acquired by CD Projekt Red last year. To meet the 350 to 500 employee goal, it consequently appears that the company has to acquire a few hundred more employees, and it has already posted dozens of job openings on its website.
“The project will also be backed by developers from Poland,” Nielubowicz added. “The North American studio will consist of teams operating from Boston and the team working from Vancouver.”
He went on: “I think Cyberpunk 2077, our most recent release, is a reasonable starting point when considering development manpower and upcoming projects of this size when estimating the overall workforce needed for such a production. 350 to 500 developers should be necessary, I believe it is safe to assume.”
CD Projekt Red did not reveal much about Orion because work has not yet started, but made the promise that it will be “the next cyberpunk game that will completely unleash the potential that this universe offers.”
The company will have a busy few years ahead of it as a new Witcher trilogy, The Molasses Flood, a CD Projekt Red Witcher universe game, and another “full-fledged” Witcher game from an unidentified third party studio were all confirmed.
The long-awaited first expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty, is still in development at the studio. The following Witcher game may not be released for several years, however it is anticipated to be released next year.
