Cyberpunk 2077 lead designer leaves CDPR after 8 years

Andrzej Zawadzki, lead designer on Cyberpunk 2077, is leaving developer CD Projekt Red after eight years with the company.

In a Twitter post, Zawadzki announced that it was “time for a new adventure” and that he would be leaving his position at CDPR. Zawadzki most recently served as lead gameplay designer on Cyberpunk 2077, but he's worked many roles during his eight-year tenure at CDPR, from his beginnings as a QA tester all the way up to lead designer on one of the biggest games of 2020.

After almost 8 years, my time at CDPR has come to an end. It's time for the new adventure.To every person I've met on the way - thank you :) It was an honor and pleasure.See you around :) pic.twitter.com/Hts3TE9VzWMarch 22, 2021

News of Zawadzki’s departure brought well wishes from fans, colleagues, and fellow game developers alike, including Kyle Rowley, who also worked on Cyberpunk 2077 and is now heading up an unannounced project at Control developer Remedy. Zawadzki hasn’t made any formal announcement of where this next adventure will take him, but we may well see his name pop up at another major game studio in the near future.

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It’s fair to say that Cyberpunk 2077’s launch didn’t go well, with numerous game breaking bugs and performance issues hampering the experience across all platforms including PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Multiple major patches are still planned, with update 1.2 addressing some of the more immersion-breaking problems later this month. Despite that, if you can look past its flaws, we still think that Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most immersive open-world games we’ve ever played, with some phenomenal storytelling and human interaction. You can check out our full thoughts in our Cyberpunk 2077 review.

Still plugging away at this massive RPG? Here's how to get all the different Cyberpunk 2077 endings.