In his words, “We decided to develop one major expansion for Cyberpunk, which is going to take advantage of all the capabilities of the new-gen consoles. Having said that, we’re totally, fully committed to developing the Cyberpunk IP further, beyond this particular Cyberpunk expansion.” He continued, “We’ve put a lot of effort and time into building this franchise and we definitely want to continue to build upon what was built right now – with new stories, new experiences, new content, basically. Not just the video game format… In terms of expansions, there’s just going to be one major expansion. However, there’s going to be new stuff in the future.” Recently, CD Projekt Red announced an expansion for the game, tagged Phantom Liberty, which it plans to release for PC and next gen consoles in 2023. According to the studio, Phantom Liberty will be the only expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. Nowakowski’s comments come at the same time as the release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunner, an anime based on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. The anime, a joint project between Netflix and CD Projekt, was developed by Studio Trigger. Its description on the Cyberpunk website reads, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners tells a standalone, 10-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunner—a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk.” The anime features a stellar cast of actors, including Aoi Yuki as Lucy, Kenjiro Tsuda as Ripperdoc, Kazuhiko Inoue as Faraday, Wataru Takagi as Pilar, and Tomoyo Kurosawa as Rebecca. It has been well received by critics and fans alike and has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Given the anime and the planned expansion, it is evident the studio views the Cyberpunk IP as valuable. Hence, it is no surprise they plan to work on more projects based on it. When CD Projekt Red released the game in 2020, it was vastly unplayable. However, the studio has put in great effort to reverse its fortune with the release of numerous patches such that it eventually started getting positive reviews and resulted in a sales surge. Cyberpunk 2077 is currently available to play on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. The 10-episode anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, is currently streaming on Netflix.
