After a lot of hard work and a huge expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 became the game people wanted it to be, but CD Projekt Red thinks it still has space to improve in the sequel.
Codenamed Project Orion, the sequel to the sprawling RPG is being developed primarily by CDPR’s new studio in Boston, rather than its home base in Poland. In a recent episode of AnsweRED, the studio’s official podcast, the game’s acting Executive Producer Dan Hernberg spoke about why they feel this is the best thing for the game.
“I think Cyberpunk is obviously a uniquely American story. It’s got a lot of like punk energy, and it was written by an American, so it just seems right to do it in America,” he said.
They also provided some specific examples of how the previous game not being developed in America by Americans led to some errors. Associate Game Director Paweł Sasko shared one story that went viral on Reddit, about the differences in manhole covers across the world.
“There’s this interesting story after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 that blew up on Reddit at some point, and it’s the manhole debacle. Like, the manholes that are covering the roads, right? There was this post with the guy saying that there is this immersive breaking bug in Cyberpunk, and the bug was about the fact that the covers for manholes for a sewer were the manholes that you use normally in Europe, in Germany, for a pavement. Those are not manholes that you normally cover in America on the streets.
“This is basically showing you the differences, right? When you go to America, there’s things like hydrants, where they are placed and how they look like. The street lights, the positions of that, the trash bins, right? They’re in the front of the house, right by the street. In Poland, in Europe, you don’t see it almost anywhere. There’s so much nuance. Dan, when we talk about it, he calls it the Americana.”
Hernberg then added that while the small differences between places aren’t necessarily immersion-breaking, they would be noticeable to people who lived in the place where the game was set. Having developers from America will allow for more “cultural touchpoints” with the audience.
CD Projekt Red has confirmed that they are also working on a sequel to The Witcher 3, codenamed Polaris.
Featured image credit: CD Projekt Red
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