CD Projekt Red says Project Hadar is its biggest undertaking yet
The Polish studio behind The Witcher has confirmed that its mysterious new IP, codenamed Project Hadar, has moved into active development, though it remains years from release and is not yet in pre-production.
CD Projekt Red has offered a rare update on its secretive new franchise, codenamed Project Hadar, describing it as the studio's largest undertaking to date. The Polish developer behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 confirmed that the project has moved beyond the conceptual stage, with a core team now working on the game itself.
Company boss Michał Nowakowski said the studio has spent several years building the foundations for the new universe. «This has been our biggest undertaking to date, taking us several years, but at this point we can say we have a coherent vision for this world and its key elements,» he said in an interview with the Polish publication Biznes Pap. «The team has begun work on the game, although it's not yet in pre-production.»
Project Hadar was first announced in 2022 as a brand new intellectual property created entirely from scratch at CD Projekt Red. At the time, the studio stressed that the project was in the earliest stages of the creative process, with no game in development and work focused exclusively on establishing the setting. Prototypes have since been produced, but there is still no release date and no confirmed platforms.
The update places Hadar alongside a crowded development slate at the studio. CD Projekt Red has just completed work on an ambitious remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and is preparing to launch a new expansion, Songs Of The Past, next year. A new mainline Witcher game is also in production, with Ciri taking over from Geralt as the central protagonist, and a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel has been in the works since 2023. Further Witcher remakes are also planned.
Nowakowski has previously indicated that the new Witcher trilogy will be delivered on a tighter schedule than fans might expect. «Our plan still is to launch the whole trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that would mean we would plan to have a shorter development time between The Witcher 4 and 5, between 5 and 6, and so on,» he said. The Witcher 4 is currently slated for a 2028 launch, with the following two instalments intended to arrive not long afterwards.
The scale of Hadar is evident in the studio's recruitment efforts. Earlier this year, CD Projekt Red sought an engineer director to help «push the envelope for the next, immersive game in the Hadar world, creating an emotional, open-world experience that will stay with gamers.» The wording suggests the project is being positioned as a major open-world title, comparable in ambition to the studio's established franchises.
For a developer whose reputation rests on sprawling role-playing games, the decision to build a new universe from the ground up represents a significant strategic bet. CD Projekt Red has spent years expanding its output beyond The Witcher, and Hadar is intended to become a third pillar alongside its fantasy and science-fiction properties. The studio has not yet shared details about the setting, genre, or gameplay of the new IP.
With no pre-production timeline confirmed and no release window in sight, Project Hadar remains a long-term proposition. The confirmation that a coherent vision now exists and that a team has begun work marks the clearest sign yet that the project is progressing, even as the studio's near-term attention stays fixed on The Witcher and Cyberpunk.
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