Key Takeaways
- CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski has described Project Hadar as the studio’s “biggest project to date” — even bigger than The Witcher 4.
- Despite being announced in 2022, Hadar has not yet entered pre-production. The team is currently building small prototypes and testing gameplay elements.
- Hadar is a completely original IP — not set in The Witcher or Cyberpunk universe, and not based on any licensed property.
- Only 33 people were working on Hadar as of July 2026, with CDPR targeting a team of up to 50 by end of year.
- By comparison, 519 people are working on The Witcher 4, 184 on Cyberpunk 2, and 84 on Project Sirius.
- Nowakowski confirmed the team has “a coherent vision” of the world and its key elements — suggesting the concept phase is nearly complete.
- Nowakowski also confirmed The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release and called it CDPR’s “most ambitious project to date.”
- CDPR said Witcher 3 Remastered sales remain higher than before the remaster even after the launch discount window ended.
CD Projekt Red doesn’t do small projects. The studio built its entire reputation on games that took years of development and set new benchmarks for what RPGs could be. So when the joint-CEO drops a line describing Project Hadar as the studio’s “biggest project to date” — bigger than The Witcher series, bigger than Cyberpunk 2077 — it’s worth sitting with that for a second.
Then you realize the game hasn’t even entered pre-production yet. And you understand this is going to be a very long wait.
What Is Project Hadar?
Project Hadar was first announced by CD Projekt Red back in 2022, when the studio laid out a broad roadmap of its future projects — new Witcher games, a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and tucked at the end, a mysterious new original IP with the codename Hadar. At the time, it was described as being “in the very early stages of the creative process.” That was four years ago.
What makes Hadar fundamentally different from everything else CDPR has built is the blank slate it’s working from. Both The Witcher franchise and Cyberpunk 2077 came with significant pre-existing IP. The Witcher was built on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels and short stories. Cyberpunk 2077 was based on Mike Pondsmith’s tabletop RPG. Those foundations — the lore, the world-building, the characters — gave development teams a head start on the most time-consuming elements of creating a new game universe.
Hadar has none of that. It’s being built from nothing, which explains both why Nowakowski is calling it the studio’s biggest undertaking and why the timeline is stretching out so dramatically before the public has even seen a single screenshot.
Where Does Development Actually Stand Right Now?
Speaking to Polish outlet PAP Biznes, Nowakowski gave the clearest update yet on where Hadar actually sits in its development cycle. The news is both encouraging and puts the timeline in stark perspective.
“At this point we can say that we have a coherent vision of [Hadar’s] world and its key elements,” Nowakowski said. “The team has started working on the game, although we’re not quite at the pre-production stage yet. We’re currently developing small prototypes, and we’re also testing gameplay elements.”
Having a “coherent vision” of the world and key elements is meaningful progress for a project this early — it means the concept phase is wrapping up and the team knows what kind of game they’re trying to make. But the explicit statement that they’re not yet in pre-production is a significant milestone that hasn’t been crossed. For context, pre-production is itself just the beginning of formal game development. Full production — the stage where the bulk of the game actually gets built — follows pre-production. So the distance between where Hadar is right now and a finished, released game is genuinely enormous.
Earlier in 2026, Nowakowski had shared what he called “an important development update” on Hadar in March, confirming the project had established “the foundations of this entirely new IP” and that the team had “clearly defined distinguishing features of this world” and “established key pillars that will not only provide the foundation for the game itself, but also, potentially, for other future products.” That language — “other future products” — suggests CDPR is thinking about Hadar not just as a single game but potentially as the seed of a new franchise.
How Many People Are Actually Working on Hadar?
CDPR’s most recent financial report, published in September 2026, puts the Hadar team at just 33 people as of July 31st. To put that in context with the rest of the studio’s projects:
- The Witcher 4: 519 developers
- Cyberpunk 2: 184 developers
- Project Sirius (multiplayer Witcher game): 84 developers (though this project recently saw layoffs)
- Project Hadar: 33 developers
The gap is striking. Hadar’s team is a fraction of the size of The Witcher 4’s workforce. But CDPR has signaled intentions to grow it — the studio is aiming to bring the Hadar team up to around 50 developers by the end of 2026, according to comments made at earlier investor calls. For a game still building prototypes, a team of that size is appropriate. The explosive hiring comes once pre-production starts and the project formally ramps up.
What Kind of Game Will Hadar Be?
Almost nothing has been confirmed officially. What we do know is that Hadar is being built in Unreal Engine, confirmed by both the March 2026 development update and earlier statements. Job listings spotted around the project have hinted at melee combat as a potential focus, and hints from Nowakowski have broadly pointed toward this being a role-playing game with an emphasis on emotional storytelling — consistent with CDPR’s DNA across all its titles.
The description of it as an open-world project has also surfaced through job postings and investor comments, which would align with what CDPR knows how to do best. Beyond that, the studio has stayed extremely tight-lipped, and considering the project hasn’t even reached pre-production, that silence is entirely expected.
What Does “Biggest Project to Date” Actually Mean?
The natural question is what Nowakowski means when he calls Hadar CDPR’s “biggest project to date” while simultaneously calling The Witcher 4 the studio’s “most ambitious project to date” in the same interview. Those two descriptions can coexist — ambition and scale aren’t necessarily the same thing.
The most likely interpretation is that “biggest” refers to the scope of what Hadar is trying to accomplish as a brand-new IP — building an entire new world, new characters, new lore, new gameplay systems without any existing property to lean on. That’s a fundamentally larger undertaking than making a new entry in an established franchise, even a hugely ambitious one like The Witcher 4. Building something from zero versus building on a foundation are categorically different challenges.
It also signals something important about how CDPR is thinking about its long-term future. The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 are the studio’s near-term priorities. Hadar is being positioned as what comes after — the next generation of what CDPR is as a studio, once it’s done supporting its existing franchises for the foreseeable future.
Updates on The Witcher 4 and The Witcher 3 Remastered
Nowakowski used the same interview to share updates on CDPR’s other projects in motion right now. On The Witcher 4, he confirmed the game is targeting a 2028 release — a window that’s been communicated previously but is now being reiterated as the studio’s working target. He described it as “our most ambitious project to date” and said CDPR wants each game to push the boundaries of what RPGs can be, introducing “new narrative and gameplay solutions” and “innovations” in both main and side quests.
On The Witcher 3 Remastered — which launched recently and promptly broke Steam concurrent player records for the game — Nowakowski said the company is “pleased” with the performance. Sales remain at a higher level than before the remaster even after the launch discount period ended, which is a meaningful sign that the update brought in not just returning players but new ones too.
There was also a notable comment on physical editions. Sony has announced plans to phase out PlayStation disc production starting in 2028, which puts a potential Witcher 4 physical release in an uncertain position. Nowakowski was pragmatic about it: studios don’t control disc manufacturing, and if platform holders decide to stop offering physical media, there’s not much a developer can do. “A studio doesn’t simply decide to release a game and then distribute the physical version itself,” he said. “If a particular manufacturer completely shuts down the option to release games on physical media, they simply won’t be available.” A stark reminder that the shift toward all-digital isn’t entirely in players’ or developers’ hands.
If you want to stay up to date on big gaming news happening right now while waiting the likely decade before Hadar ever sees the light of day, there’s plenty to follow. Wardogs just had its Season 2 tank exploit drama resolved, Ghost of Yotei’s full sales picture was detailed with a surprising revenue comparison to Tsushima, and Fortnite’s Linux launch was officially confirmed alongside a rebuilt Easy Anti-Cheat system.
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Project Hadar is one of the most intriguing games in development anywhere in the industry right now — not because we know anything substantial about it, but precisely because we don’t. CDPR building an original IP of this described ambition from scratch, without the crutch of existing source material, is genuinely exciting. The studio has earned enough trust over the years for that ambition to mean something.
But the reality is that this game is years away from any kind of reveal, let alone release. With The Witcher 4 targeting 2028 and Cyberpunk 2 in earlier stages of development behind it, Hadar is realistically a project for the 2030s. Knowing it’s being treated as the biggest thing CDPR has ever attempted makes the wait feel meaningful — but it’s still a very long wait.
