CD Projekt ventures beyond The Witcher with Cyberpunk

CD Projekt, the Polish developer and publisher behind The Witcher series, announced a new game that will be based on R. Talsorian Games' pen-and-paper roleplaying game Cyberpunk. This new title, which is billed as a "triple-A RPG," is the first new IP that CD Projekt has tackled since the company found success with its Witcher franchise in 2007. The developer has formed a new group made up of veterans from the Witcher team to work on it. At CD Projekt's Summer Conference today, R. Talsorian Games chairman and Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith claimed that his franchise has more than 5 million players around the world across its various pen-and-paper RPGs and collectible card games. Like the similar Shadowrun series, Cyberpunk debuted in the late 1980s and featured many staples from the cyberpunk genre established by authors like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, such as hackers, cybernetic implants, and megacorporations. CD Projekt is collaborating with Pondsmith on the title, and says it intends to create a whole franchise of games based on Cyberpunk, just as it did with The Witcher book series created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The company hasn't yet discussed planned platforms or release timing. Though Cyberpunk's near-futuristic setting is very different from The Witcher's, CD Projekt says its new game will feature many hallmarks from that series, such as morally ambiguous choices, non-linear progression, and a complex story designed for mature audiences. The Polish developer also made several other announcements at its Summer Conference, revealing that Spike Chunsoft will publish The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for Xbox 360 in Japan on August 23. CD Projekt will put out The Witcher 2 for Mac this fall, too. Launched for Windows a year ago and for Xbox 360 last month, The Witcher 2 has so far sold more than 1.7 million copies.