CD Projekt RED Expands Project Hadar Team: Where the Studio’s Third Universe Stands
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04.09.2026 23:09
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2 min read
Polish studio CD Projekt RED has shared new details about Project Hadar, its first fully original universe created from scratch without relying on third-party books or tabletop adaptations. Despite viral reports of a shift to active game development, the project is still in the conceptual phase: just over 30 people are currently working on it, and the team is expected to grow to 50 developers by the end of the year.
Comparison with The Witcher 4 and the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel
During a discussion of financial results for the first half of 2026, the company’s management outlined the team’s current tasks. A small group is testing fundamental ideas, shaping the visual style, and checking individual gameplay mechanics on early prototypes.
The scale of production is clearly reflected in the studio’s staff allocation:
- The Witcher 4 (Project Polaris) is already in full-scale production, with 519 employees working on it;
- The Cyberpunk 2077 sequel (Project Orion) involves 184 specialists across the American and Polish divisions;
- The Hadar initiative has about 30 people and has not yet entered even the deep pre-production phase.
The company’s first fully original world
The codename Hadar first appeared in CD Projekt’s strategy update in the fall of 2022, although rough lore drafts had been in the works since 2021. For the Polish studio, this is a landmark project: the Witcher saga was based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, and the dark future world borrowed rules from Mike Pondsmith’s tabletop RPG.
In conversations with investors, management has emphasized that it sees Hadar as the company’s third pillar franchise, aimed at high-budget role-playing blockbusters. The studio has already established the basic rules and atmospheric benchmarks of the new universe, but all specifics—from genre and visual style to story and official title—remain under wraps. Given the current pace, the first official reveals shouldn’t be expected before the release of the new Witcher game.
