CD Projekt Red says Hadar is still in prototyping, short of pre-production

CD Projekt Red’s original game codenamed Hadar has not yet reached pre-production, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski told Polish outlet PAP Biznes. Eurogamer, which reported the interview, says the studio called Hadar its “biggest project to date” and that reaching this stage has taken several years.

According to Eurogamer’s translation, Nowakowski said the team now has a coherent vision of Hadar’s world and its key elements. Work on the game has started, he said, but “we’re not quite at the pre-production stage yet.” For now the team is building small prototypes and testing gameplay elements.

CD Projekt Red announced Hadar four years ago and has shared little about it since. Eurogamer notes that the game is a new IP. That sets it apart from The Witcher, which is based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, and Cyberpunk 2077, which comes from Mike Pondsmith’s tabletop RPG. In March, Nowakowski said the team had laid the foundations of the new world and defined pillars that could also support future products. He added that the prototypes were being made in Unreal Engine.

The project’s team is still small. Citing CD Projekt’s September financial report, Eurogamer says 33 people were working on Hadar as of July 31. The same report put 519 people on The Witcher 4, 184 on Cyberpunk 2 and 84 on the multiplayer Witcher game Project Sirius. Eurogamer notes that Project Sirius was recently hit by layoffs.

In the same interview, Nowakowski said The Witcher 4 should bring new narrative and gameplay ideas, including changes to main and side quests. Eurogamer reports that the game has a 2028 release target. He also said the company was pleased with sales of the recent The Witcher 3 Remastered update, which he said are still higher than before the remaster even though the launch discount has ended.

Nowakowski also addressed Sony’s plan to phase out PlayStation disc production from 2028, which Eurogamer says could put a physical release of The Witcher 4 at risk. Because console makers produce the discs, he said, physical editions won’t be possible if a manufacturer stops offering them.