CDPR’s Project Hadar Took Years to Find Its Vision

CD Projekt Red has started work on Project Hadar, the studio’s new original IP, but fans hoping for a reveal any time soon should temper their expectations. Co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has confirmed the project is not yet in pre-production, and it took the team several years just to establish a coherent creative foundation.

Years of Groundwork Before a Single Line of Pre-Production

In an interview with Biznes, Nowakowski described Project Hadar as the studio’s “biggest undertaking to date,” according to Insider Gaming. He stated that it has taken several years for the team to land on a coherent vision for the world and its key elements, and that formal work on the game has now begun. Despite that progress, he was clear that the project has not crossed into pre-production territory.

As IGN notes, CD Projekt Red had already informed the public earlier this year that Project Hadar had moved into the conceptual phase of its first video game. The studio first announced the IP back in 2022, meaning the concept has been in development in some form for at least a few years without reaching the structured pre-production stage most major games require before a public reveal.

What That Means for the Timeline

The distinction between active development and pre-production matters. Pre-production is typically when a game’s design pillars, core systems, and production pipeline are formally locked in. The fact that Project Hadar has not reached that stage yet suggests any official reveal, let alone a release, remains a considerable distance away. CD Projekt Red is already committed to shipping The Witcher 4 and has a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel on the long-range roadmap, which further illustrates where Project Hadar sits in the studio’s queue.

Project Sirius Also Getting a Cautious Approach

Nowakowski also addressed Project Sirius, the multiplayer title set in the Witcher universe, in the same interview. He explained that the team size for the project has been adjusted because the team had “grown beyond where they are in the iteration.” He added that because this is the first multiplayer game of its kind that CD Projekt Red is building, the studio is being particularly careful about what it shows publicly and when.

Between The Witcher 4 as the studio’s most immediate major release, a Cyberpunk sequel still far on the horizon, Project Hadar in its earliest working stages, and Project Sirius being carefully managed, CD Projekt Red has an unusually full slate for a studio that releases games infrequently. How long it takes Project Hadar to move from conceptual groundwork to a proper pre-production phase, and eventually a public reveal, remains an open question.

Sources: Insider Gaming, IGN