Mike Pondsmith Teases Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel's Chicago Gone Wrong City
Mike Pondsmith says cyberpunk 2077’s sequel will move beyond Night City. The original creator described a second city in Project Orion as feeling like “Chicago gone wrong,” a sharper clue about how CD Projekt RED is widening the map after the 2022 sequel reveal.
Digital Dragons 2025
Pondsmith made the comments at Digital Dragons 2025 and said, “I’m not as involved directly, but I see the scripts.” He also said, “Last week I was wandering around talking to different departments and seeing what they had like, ‘This is the new Cyberware, what do you think?’”
He added, “I spent a lot of time talking to one of the environment guys,” then pointed to the sequel’s geography: “because there’s another city that we visit, and I’m not telling you anymore than that, but there’s another city that we visit.” That gives Project Orion a second urban space alongside Night City, a move that changes the sequel from a return trip to a broader world layout.
Night City and the new map
Pondsmith was explicit that “Night City is still there,” but he framed the new location with one of the most vivid lines in the story: “I understand the feel that you’re going for, and this really does work, it doesn’t feel like Blade Runner, it feels more like Chicago gone wrong.” For players, that suggests the sequel is not just reusing the old skyline; it is trying to build a second setting with a different mood and structure.
The sequel was first confirmed in October 2022, and the current staffing level gives a sense of how far out it still is. At the time of writing, 135 employees were working on Project Orion at CD Projekt RED, and the game will not launch until 2028 at the earliest.
Project Orion in 2028
That timeline leaves a long runway for the studio to define how the second city fits with Night City and whether the new setting becomes a companion space or a major expansion of the sequel’s core loop. Pondsmith’s comments do not settle the full design, but they do show that Project Orion is already being built around more than one city, and that is the detail worth watching next.
