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The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 is in development at the CD Projekt Red studios in Boston and Vancouver. The main reason for creating the Boston studio was to let CDPR develop Cyberpunk and The Witcher simultaneously. However, the developers say it will also help make the game more authentically American.
How is CD Projekt making the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel more authentic?
“I think Cyberpunk is obviously a uniquely American story,” said acting executive producer Dan Hernberg. It’s got a lot of like, punk energy, and [the tabletop game] was written by an American, so it just seems right to do it in America.” He and other developers discussed this and more in a recent episode of the AnsweRED Podcast, as GameSpot reported.
Of course, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed by CDPR’s main studio in Wrocław, Poland. Unfortunately, the European developers overlooked a few subtler cultural markers, which CDPR wants to fix in the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
Associate game director Paweł Sasko gave the example of Cyberpunk 2077’s “manhole debacle.” While many players might not have noticed, Night City’s manhole covers are strangely European for a city in California. Other examples include streetlights, the position of garbage bins, the color of street signs, and the design of curbs. “It doesn’t break immersion,” said Sasko, “but it’s just that little thing where you’re like, ‘Well, maybe this wasn’t made by people who live here or people who fully understand all of American culture.’”
It’s not just manholes and street signs, with Sasko also discussing things like movies and music. “I also think that being in America, it allows us to have those cultural touchpoints with the larger American, you know, kind of influence with Hollywood,” he said. “Obviously, Cyberpunk 2077 took place in LA, and so there’s just kind of all these cultural touchpoints and things that we can kind of interact with, whether that’s from music or story or just different parts of America that are interesting to explore.”