The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt Red is hard at work on a number of games right now. Alongside The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2, the latter of which keeps “evolving” in pre-production, the studio also has other titles in the works, including Project Hadar.
In a discussion with Polish outlet PAP Biznes, CDPR co-CEO Michał Nowakowski claimed that the mysterious new game is the studio’s “biggest project to date”. While the size of The Witcher 4’s team is eclipsing that of Cyberpunk 2077’s, Project Hadar’s scope appears to be eclipsing that of the studio’s massive RPGs.
“At this point, we can say that we have a coherent vision of [Hadar’s] world and its key elements,” Nowakowski said. At this point, little is known about Hadar, but the game is a brand-new, original IP from CDPR, and the game has been described as an “emotional, open-world experience”.
Considering CDPR’s abandonment of its internal RedEngine tools, which were used for The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, it’s clear that the game will be made on some form of Unreal Engine. However, with Nowakowski confirming that the game has taken “several good years” already and the game isn’t officially in pre-production, it probably won’t come out until 2035 or later.
Nevertheless, the co-CEO believes in the idea behind Project Hadar. “The team has started working on the game, although we’re not quite at the pre-production stage yet,” he said. “We’re currently developing small prototypes, and we’re also testing gameplay elements.”
For now, as explained in an earlier statement, the groundwork ideas of Project Hadar have been decided. “The team has established the foundations of this entirely new IP,” the co-CEO said. However, compared to CDPR’s bounty of other projects, there are very few developers working on the upcoming IP.
As of CDPR’s last financial update in July, only 33 developers were assigned to Project Hadar with 84 developers attached to the studio’s upcoming Project Sirius, 184 assigned to Cyberpunk 2, and 519 assigned to The Witcher 4. Additionally, 30 developers are assigned to “other”, unannounced projects.
While nothing is really known about Project Hadar, we do have a vague idea of what Project Sirius will entail. The new game, which was revealed in 2022, has been described as a co-op multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher. Hopefully, the game will be able to reuse a number of assets from The Witcher 4 to speed up production. The game also has no release date right now.
