If you were hoping to see Project Hadar soon, don’t. CD Projekt Red’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski told Polish business outlet PAP Biznes that the studio’s first original universe is its “biggest undertaking to date,” but that the game is not even in preproduction yet. The interview was reported in English on October 15, 2026.
The good news is that the foundation is in place. Nowakowski says the team now has a coherent vision for the world and its key elements, and world building is close to done. What exists today is small prototypes and gameplay tests, not a game in full development. With The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 ahead of it in the queue, Hadar is CD Projekt’s long game.
Where Hadar actually stands
The new interview lines up with what CD Projekt told investors in September. On the September 2 earnings webcast, investor relations head Karolina Gnaś said Hadar is “still in the conceptual phase,” with prototyping and work on the new universe running side by side. Nowakowski has all but confirmed it will be a role playing game.
On the H1 2026 earnings webcast, Gnaś gave a team size: “over 30 people,” with plans to grow to “up to 50 developers by the end of this year.” Some coverage at the time read that as hiring 50 more people. The official transcript says up to 50 in total, which is a much smaller team.
Some context on why the phrasing matters: in game development, preproduction is when a studio locks the design, builds a vertical slice and plans the full production. Hadar is a step before that. Nothing about its story, characters or setting has been shown publicly.
How Hadar compares to CD Projekt’s other games
| Project | Stage | Developers (end of July 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 4 | Full production, target window 2028 | 519 |
| Cyberpunk 2 | Preproduction | 184 |
| Project Sirius | Preproduction, team recently cut | Not given after cuts |
| Project Hadar | Conceptual, not in preproduction | Over 30, up to 50 planned by year end |
Those numbers come from Nowakowski’s remarks on the H1 webcast, where he said the total development team reached 1,045 people at the end of July. The Witcher 4 grew from 513 developers at the end of April to 519, and Cyberpunk 2 was expanded to 184 over the previous three months. Project Sirius, the studio’s multiplayer project, had about 80 developers before 18 people were cut from it in August. For everything confirmed about Geralt’s successor so far, see our explainer on The Witcher 4.
Watch CD Projekt’s official H1 2026 results commentary below.
![[PL/EN] Grupa CD PROJEKT RED - wyniki finansowe za I półrocze 2026 r. | KOMENTARZ](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YNSRIFAKoFY/hqdefault.jpg)
What fans are saying
There isn’t much to react to yet, and it shows. We couldn’t find a large fan thread about this interview on the places we can read, and the comment sections we checked were empty. The conversation mostly lives in headlines. GamesRadar’s write up hinted that “biggest undertaking” means Hadar is bigger than The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2, which is a stretch: Nowakowski’s words cover the effort of building a brand new universe, not a team or budget size, and the headcount says the opposite today.
The questions fans keep asking are predictable and fair. Is it a third person action RPG like The Witcher, or something new? Is it single player only? And can a studio that shipped Cyberpunk 2077 the way it did really run four big games at once? None of that has an answer yet.
Our take
We like the honesty. Calling Hadar the biggest undertaking while admitting it isn’t in preproduction is exactly the kind of expectation setting CD Projekt failed at before Cyberpunk 2077. Building a new universe from nothing is harder than adapting Sapkowski’s books or the Cyberpunk tabletop game, so taking years on the world first makes sense.
But be realistic about the timeline. The Witcher 4 targets 2028, Cyberpunk 2 is in preproduction with 184 people, and Hadar has around 30 to 50. Even on a smooth run, we don’t expect to see Hadar in a trailer before the Witcher 4 ships, and a release looks like the 2030s.
Release date, platforms and price
- Release: not announced (Hadar is in the conceptual phase, not in preproduction)
- Platforms: not announced
- Price: not announced
- Stores: none yet. Latest official word: CD PROJEKT H1 2026 webcast transcript
Based on CD PROJEKT’s H1 2026 earnings webcast transcript, and Michał Nowakowski’s interview with PAP Biznes as reported by GamesRadar.
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