Project Hadar Begins Prototyping as Witcher 4 Team Expands

CD Projekt Red shared new development details during its March 19, 2026 earnings presentation, providing updates on The Witcher 4, the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, and the company’s original new franchise known as Project Hadar. The studio also confirmed that its internal development workforce has grown substantially.

CD Projekt Red now has more than 900 developers working across internal projects as of the end of February 2026. The studio gained over 220 developers during the previous year. These headcount figures include only teams working internally and do not include projects developed with external partners. One such collaboration is the Witcher 1 remake currently in development with Fool’s Theory.

The largest internal project continues to be The Witcher 4. The team assigned to the game now consists of 499 developers. Compared to October 2025, the project gained nearly 50 additional staff members. Most new hires at the company have been assigned to this project.

During the earnings presentation, CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski explained that the expanded team is focused on improving the game and expanding the technology shown previously during the Unreal Fest technical demonstration. “Having gained greater visibility on the game’s scope, we are strengthening our internal teams while at the same time recruiting top-class talent to provide long-term support in delivering both The Witcher 4 and our future titles,” Nowakowski said.

Developers working on the project are improving quality and scaling up the technical solutions that were previously presented in the Unreal Fest tech demo so they can be used across the entire game. Reports tied to the update indicate that The Witcher 4 is not expected to launch until after 2027.

Alongside the ongoing development of the next Witcher game, CD Projekt Red also provided one of its most detailed updates on Project Hadar, a new franchise first announced in 2022. The studio has described Hadar as a series set in an original universe created internally.

Until the latest earnings call, the company had released very few updates about the project. During the presentation, Nowakowski described the latest information as an “important development update” and explained that the team has reached a new stage of development.

“Work on the project is progressing dynamically, and the team has established the foundations of this entirely new IP,” Nowakowski said.

The studio has already defined several elements of the world being created for the project. According to the CEO, developers have identified distinct characteristics of the universe and established core structural ideas for the franchise.

“Now, we have 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,” he said.

These foundations are designed to support the first game set in the new universe and any additional projects connected to it. Work on the intellectual property itself continues to develop. “Of course, this does not mean the end of work on IP itself, which will naturally continue to evolve and develop on many fronts over time,” Nowakowski said.

After completing the early conceptual stage, the development team has begun experimenting with gameplay ideas. Developers are designing elements that might appear in the game and building multiple working prototypes.

Those prototypes are being created directly inside Unreal Engine. This approach lets developers test and verify how specific mechanics and gameplay features perform in real-time.

The studio has not revealed the genre, narrative details, or gameplay structure for Project Hadar. Information released during the earnings call focused only on the development stage and internal progress.

CD Projekt Red is also continuing work on the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. The project currently has 149 developers assigned to it. Together with The Witcher 4 and Project Hadar, the studio is developing three internal projects while also collaborating externally with Fool’s Theory on the remake of The Witcher 1.