Cyberpunk's 2028 "release" is an $899 statue, and that's the point
The headline says a new Cyberpunk 2077 release lands in 2028. It's a collectible, not a game, and it shows how CD Projekt keeps Night City alive while The Witcher 4 takes over.
Photo: CD PROJEKT RED / Steam (uso editorial)
"A brand-new Cyberpunk 2077 release has been confirmed for 2028." Read that headline fast and you'll picture a sequel, an expansion, maybe a surprise trailer. Read the article and you get a 1/5-scale figure of Lucy with a price tag attached. That gap between the click and the content is worth dwelling on, because it says more about CD Projekt's strategy than any game announcement would.
What was actually announced
As Screen Rant reports, CD Projekt Red and Studio Trigger have teamed up with Prime 1 Studio on a statue of Lucy from the first season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It's available for pre-order now, with delivery expected between March and June 2028. Game Rant puts the price at $899. The figure has LED lighting at the base, the holographic koi fish and a swappable "Netrunning" head with glowing red eyes.
The same article admits that, after the recent arrival of Edgerunners 2 on Netflix, it will likely be a while before anything new appears on the Cyberpunk front. CD Projekt Red's development effort is pointed at The Witcher 4, and details on the Cyberpunk sequel, formerly Project Orion, remain a mystery. That is the real news: Night City is entering a quiet decade-in-miniature, and the statue is the placeholder.
Milking, or maintaining? The line is thinner than it looks
The cynical reading writes itself: a studio with its next big game far away keeps selling the last one. But we think "milking" is the wrong verb here. Milking implies squeezing something that is running dry. Cyberpunk 2077 launched on PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows and Xbox One in December 2020, according to Wikipedia, and it has since reached PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and macOS. That is a game that has been found by new audiences again and again, and a world that now has an anime with a second season behind it.
A premium collectible aimed at the people who loved the anime is, honestly, the least intrusive way to keep a brand visible. Nobody is forced to buy it. It doesn't fragment a player base, doesn't sell a half-finished expansion and doesn't pretend to be a game. Compare that with the usual "keep the franchise warm" playbook of cheap spin-offs and re-releases, and a pricey statue looks almost honest.
The risk is not the statue, it's the silence
Here is where we get skeptical. Screen Rant notes the big patch tied to the anime's release may be the final update Cyberpunk 2077 ever sees. If that holds, the actual game goes quiet while merchandise and streaming keep the name in circulation. That's a sensible handoff, but it's also a risky one: a world lives on playable content, not on shelf ornaments.
The Witcher is the obvious comparison. GamesRadar's recent RPG Club piece on The Witcher 3, a loving look at the quest A Towerful of Mice, argues that nobody does side quests like CD Projekt Red, and that both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 make players care quickly. That is the studio's real asset, and it can't be sold in resin. It's in the writing, and that's what Night City will need again when the sequel finally shows its face.
So the strategy is smart under one condition: the merchandise and anime must feed anticipation for a new game rather than replace it. If 2028 turns out to be the year of statues and the next playable Night City is still a rumor, fans will rightly feel they've been sold the same world twice.
Our verdict
Don't confuse the headline with the product. The 2028 "release" is a collectible, and it isn't a sign that CD Projekt is stretching Cyberpunk thin. It's a sign that the studio has one world fully redeemed, another in production, and a gap in between that it would rather fill with something tasteful than something rushed.
Our advice: if you love Lucy and have $899 to spare, go ahead, but remember it's a pre-order for a product still in development, and the maker says size and weight may change. If you're waiting for the next Night City game, don't read anything into this either way. Judge CD Projekt by what it announces when the sequel is ready, not by what it sells while it waits.
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