CD Projekt Red is on a big recruitment push at the moment as it scales up development of its next big RPG projects. Just last week, the Polish developer nabbed one of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2‘s lead designers to lend their quest-crafting skills to The Witcher 4. Now, it’s hired the former narrative lead of Cloud Chamber Games, the developer that’s currently working on BioShock 4.
Liz Albl joined CD Projekt last month in the role of senior writer on Cyberpunk 2. Prior to this, she spent almost three years as narrative lead at Cloud Chamber Games working on BioShock 4, with her other credits including Ghost of Tsushima, Watch Dogs: Legion, and just over a year working on Monolith’s cancelled Wonder Woman game.
As spotted by IGN, Albl left Cloud Chamber in August—around the time the developer laid off staff after BioShock 4 failed an internal review, with its narrative criticised by 2K’s executives in particular as the publisher committed to a development overhaul.
BioShock 4 had already been in development for a decade before the review, with 2K announcing it was in production six years ago. The overhaul resulted in the removal of studio head Kelley Gilmore and creative director Hogarth de la Plante moving to a publishing role. 2K has also cancelled a remake of the original BioShock that was in development, though that occurred earlier in the year than the overhaul of BioShock 4.
Development of BioShock 4 is now being overseen by Rod Fergusson, who most recently worked as Diablo franchise lead and the head of Gears of War before that. In BioShock circles, however, he’s best known as the “fixer” for BioShock Infinite; the man who went in and ruthlessly cut down Irrational’s troubled sequel to get development back on track and push it out of the door in 2013.
As for what we know about Albl’s new project, the answer is not very much. We do know that Cyberpunk 2 is officially in early development, and that one of its new locations will be less Blade Runner-y than Night City and feel ‘more like Chicago gone wrong’. We also know that it’s highly unlikely to release before 2030, meaning there is a very real chance our own society will have caught up with Cyberpunk’s dystopia by the time it comes out.
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