CD Projekt Red’s Sebastian Stepien, who served as head writer on upcoming RPG Cyberpunk 2077 and as a creative director on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, has left the Polish studio and has joined Blizzard Entertainment. First reported by PC Gamer, Stepien’s LinkedIn profile now shows that he serves as a creative director at Blizzard since joining the company this year.
Stepien worked at CD Projekt Red for over twelve years. At the studio, Stepien worked on the entirety of the studio’s trilogy of The Witcher games, and joined Konrad Tomaskiewicz and Mateusz Kanik as the creative directors on the most recent entry The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Along with being the head writer for Cyberpunk 2077, Stepien also served as the narrative and setting director on the game as well.
It is currently unknown why Stepien decided to leave the Polish studio, but the decision could indicate that his work on Cyberpunk 2077 has been completed. The highly anticipated game had its big showing at Microsoft’s E3 presentation last year. CD Projekt Red then proceeded to unveil 48 minute gameplay reveal for the game to the public a few months later. Late last year, the Polish studio also announced that they had enlisted the help of Digital Scapes to help with the rest of the development of the game. Even if Stepien’s work on on Cyberpunk 2077‘s story is finished, the game currently still has no release date in sight.
It is currently unknown what Stepien will be doing in his new creative role at Blizzard Entertainment. It could be possible that he is joining in on the reportedly in development Diablo IV. With serving as creative director on what many consider one of the best RPGs of the generation and writer of one of the most anticipated ones, it will be interesting to see what Stepien produces in a brand new environment.