Cyberpunk 2077 is now being carried by just 17 devs, CD Projekt Red says "things may change one day, but as for now, 17 is enough"

CD Projekt Red is continuing to bring patches for Cyberpunk 2077 with some regularity, but with the focus moving to other projects, the team supporting the sci-fi RPG is down to a skeleton crew. The studio says this is plenty to handle the game's current needs.

In CD Projekt's latest financial report, it confirmed that just 17 of its 627 developers were working on Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty as of February 29. "Compared to our previous update provided in November," joint CEO Michał Nowakowski explained, "the team responsible for maintenance of Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty has shrunk, with developers being reassigned to other projects following the release of Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0."

When an investor asked if 17 people was enough, chief strategy officer Adam Kiciński responded "Yes, it's enough. We are finally happy - since last year - with the state of the game; both the base game and Phantom Liberty - the latter from the very beginning of course, so it’s enough - it might even shrink a bit, because as for now, we're not planning any further big updates. Of course, we’re still looking at this game and things may change one day, but as for now, 17 is enough."

CD Projekt Red dev split — (Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

CD Projekt Red did not previously give specific headcounts for its development teams, but in its last financial report, it confirmed that over 25% of the studio was still working to support Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty as of a full month after the launch of the expansion. Since then, we've gotten Cyberpunk 2077 update 2.1 and a few smaller patches in its wake, but all indications have indeed suggested that support for Cyberpunk is winding down.

We know CD Projekt is already going big for Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Project Orion by recruiting veteran devs from Control, Diablo, Mortal Kombat, and BioWare RPGs, so here's hoping that the new game lives up to its pedigree - and launches in a better state, too.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.