According to a new press release, CD Projekt Red North America is adding a few new high-profile team members to work on Project Orion.
Project Orion is the codename for CD Projekt Red’s anticipated follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077. It was first announced last year.
Today’s press release confirms the game is still “currently in the early stages of development”. Last month, the developers teased that Cyberpunk 2077 was just a warm-up.
Project Orion’s new team members will include Dan Hernberg, Ryan Barnard, Alan Villani, Anna Megill, and Alexander Freed.
These are all studio veterans, with extensive experience in popular titles. Their combined experience includes games like Diablo 3, Mortal Kombat, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and more.
CD Projekt Red’s new press release also confirms the roles for each of the new team members.
Hernberg was previously Head of Production at Amazon Games, and Lead Product Manager at Blizzard Entertainment. At CDPR, they will serve as an Executive Producer.
They seem accustomed to handling massive projects, so Project Orion will likely feature a large scope.
CDPR will add Barnard as Design Director, Villani as Engineering Director, and Megill as lead writer with Freed bolstering the storytelling.
Megill worked on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which has some decent ratings but a divisive narrative. Still, the writer also contributed to Remedy’s Control, an award-winning game and a worthy successor to Alan Wake.
The new team members point to a potentially fresh, ambitious, and stable direction for CDPR.
Adam Badowski, a joint CEO at CD Projekt Red, revealed last month that the studio will also start developing the next Witcher game this year. The anticipated installment will be titled The Witcher: Polaris.
For more of the latest gaming industry news, you can read about the new titles coming to Xbox Game Pass in February.
