CD Projekt Red is indeed laying off nearly ten percent of its staff in the upcoming months. This sounds drastic, but seems necessary to streamline development and focus resources more fully on the upcoming projects.
“There is no easy way to say this, but today we are overstaffed.”
In an organizational message posted to CD Projekt Red’s website, CEO Adam Kiciński states the company wants to have, “teams that are more agile and effective.” Also adding that after analyzing teams in the company, some are no longer needed.
“We’ve carefully assessed all teams in the company in terms of their expected contribution to the delivery of our strategy. There is no easy way to say this, we are over staffed. We have talented people on board who are finishing their tasks and – based on current and expected project needs – we already know we don’t have enough opportunities for them im the next year.”
“The outcome is the studio parting ways with around 100 people, which is roughly 9% of the entire team.” He goes on to explain, “This will not be immediate as some employees will be let go as late as Q1 2024 but, in the spirit of transparency, we’ve chosen to share the information now. We want team members to have ample time to process and adjust to the change and we’ve made sure to offer everyone a comprehensive severance package.” Sounds nice.
CD Projekt Red has too much on
One of the next highly anticipated projects onboard for CD Projekt Red is the sequel to the Witcher Series, The Witcher 4. That is only a working title since no official title has been confirmed. We’re yet to find out if Geralt or any established characters will be involved. Codenamed: Polaris, nothing has been confirmed about the story or main characters of the game.
The released teaser image of a lynx shaped medallion hints that it may involve The School of the Lynx. We do know it is the first instalment of a multigame saga and it will use Unreal Engine 5 to power the game instead of CD Projekt Red’s own Red engine, which was used for The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.
The next game is a Witcher spinoff codenamed: Sirius. The game is still in production and aims to cater to a wider audience, incorporating both multiplayer and single player elements. The game did face challenges, which led CD Projekt Red to evaluate and redefine its framework. In May, that restructuring caused them to lay off 21 American and 9 Polish employees of Molasses Flood. Molasses Flood is a small American studio behind Flame in the Flood, which CD Projekt Red acquired in 2021. Despite the layoffs, codename: Sirius is still safe and very much in production.
Also, there is a Witcher remake spinoff codenamed: Canis Majoris, which will be a “full fledged witcher game,” according to Head of Studio, Adam Badowski. He goes on to express it will be a return to CDPR’s roots. A modern reimagining of the initial game, transforming it from a semi-open world to a full fledged story-driven open-world RPG. The game is being developed by Fool’s Theory, the studio that also produced Baldur’s Gate 3 and Outriders. Thankfully, this studio was not on the affected list, so this game is safe and still very much in production.
As for the proposed sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, codenamed: Orion, literally nothing is known about it. With all of these ongoing projects, who knows when it will be started? The Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty drops on September 26, 2023, two months away. After a rocky release Cyberpunk 2077 has found its footing. A lot of work has been put into the game, and it is quite enjoyable and highly customizable and it will be interesting to finish V’s story in The Phantom Liberty expansion.
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According to CD Projekt Red’s website, the last project, codenamed: Hadar, has been in production since 2021. Nothing has been confirmed or released except that it is going to be a completely new IP started from scratch directly within CD Projekt Red.
What do you think will come of the multiple projects CD Projekt Red has in development? Will some be cancelled? Will they be unaffected? Let us know in the comments!
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