Night City is expanding beyond open-world RPGs and anime episodes. A new report points to CD Projekt partnering with WayForward, the studio behind the Shantae series and River City Girls, on a 2.5D brawler set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077. The project is codenamed Gemini and has reportedly been in development since 2025.
What Gemini is supposed to be
Details on the project come from an unnamed former WayForward employee. The game is described as a "rollback-driven" 2.5D brawler, which immediately calls to mind WayForward's own River City Girls, a series that blends side-scrolling brawling with a punchy anime aesthetic. That tonal overlap with Edgerunners, which leans hard into its anime identity, makes the pairing feel less random than it might first appear.
The key here is that rollback netcode being baked in from the design phase suggests the team was thinking about competitive or cooperative multiplayer from the start, not bolting it on later. That's a meaningful design choice, not a footnote.
Gemini is reportedly still in the research and design phase, meaning a release was never imminent. CD Projekt declined to comment when contacted about the project.
The uncertainty hanging over this project
Here's the thing: the report comes with a significant caveat. WayForward had an unannounced game based on an external franchise cancelled last year after losing funding, which led to layoffs in September 2025. Whether that cancelled project was Gemini or something else entirely is currently unknown.
That ambiguity matters. Gemini could still be in active development, quietly progressing while WayForward works on other titles. Or it could have been the project that got shelved. Right now, there's no confirmation either way.
Where the Edgerunners universe is heading
Even if Gemini never ships, the Edgerunners universe is clearly not slowing down. A second season of the Netflix anime is currently set to premiere this fall, and trailers have already sent fans searching for Night City location references tied to Cyberpunk 2077.
On the game side, Cyberpunk 2 (formerly codenamed Project Orion) has around 163 people working on it as of late April. Keanu Reeves has publicly expressed interest in reprising Johnny Silverhand, and Mike Pondsmith has said he has a way to make that work narratively. The catch: CD Projekt is prioritizing The Witcher 4, and Cyberpunk 2 is not expected before 2030.
That long gap explains a lot. With the mainline sequel years away, spin-offs and expanded media fill the space, keeping the IP active and the fanbase engaged. A WayForward-developed brawler fits that pattern neatly, whether or not Gemini survives to launch.
If you want to revisit Night City while waiting for official news, the Cyberpunk 2077 guides cover everything from build optimization to the Phantom Liberty expansion. For broader gaming coverage across other titles, the full gaming guides hub has you covered while the industry sorts out what Gemini actually is.
