CD Projekt Red Sebastian Stepien was one of three creative directors on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and a narrative and setting director on the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 at CD Projekt Red.
It’s now been revealed via LinkedIn (spotted by PC Gamer)that Stepian has parted ways with CD Projekt Red to start a new role as creative director at Blizzard’s California office. He’d been with CD Projekt Red since 2006, according to his LinkedIn. He worked as a writer for the studio before landing a role as lead story designer in 2010.
CD ProjektHis departure from the studio may well indicate that Cyberpunk is getting tantalisingly close to being finished. At the very least, it implies that Stepien’s work as a narrative director is done and dusted, which would be a big step forward for the game.
This would certainly line up with comments made last August, when producer Richard Borzymowski said Cyberpunk 2077 was missing a few assets and still had a few bugs, but could essentially be played from beginning to end.
We also know that CD Projekt Red are targeting current gen consoles for release, so a late 2019/early 2020 launch could be entirely possible possible at this stage. While we’ve all finally seen a decent chunk of gameplay now, plenty of Cyberpunk 2077 remains shrouded in mystery.
This is great of course, and I think I speak for everyone when I say I’m really looking forward to experiencing the sci-fi world CD Projekt Red have created for us with as few spoilers as possible.
As for what’s next for Stepian? Well, that’s anyone’s guess. As PC Gamer noted, there are currently a load of positions available at Blizzard for a whole number of unannounced projects.
One thing’s for sure though; any development team with one of the people in charge of making The Witcher 3 happen is a force to be reckoned with.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.