CD Projekt RED has a curious habit of revealing things before they’re ready to. Not through trailers or showcase presentations — but buried inside job listings. That’s exactly how, piece by piece throughout 2025 and 2026, the outline of Project Hadar is slowly taking shape: the studio’s first ever fully original universe, borrowed from no author, licensed from no one.
The latest clue comes from an engineering director job posting, where CDPR is looking for someone to help build “the next, immersive game in the Hadar world” — described as “an emotional, open-world experience that will stay with gamers.” It’s one sentence. But for anyone who’s been following this project since 2022, it says quite a lot.
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Project Hadar by CD Projekt RED: What We Know So Far
Project Hadar was first announced in 2022, and at the time the studio was refreshingly upfront about it: this was the earliest possible stage of the creative process. No gameplay, no screenshots, no concept art — just a logo and a promise that something genuinely new was in the works, untethered from The Witcher or Cyberpunk.
By spring 2026, co-CEO Michał Nowakowski offered a clearer status update: the team had established the foundations of the new IP, was actively designing specific game elements, building multiple prototypes, and running them directly in Unreal Engine. In other words — the project moved from “ideas on paper” to actual hands-on prototyping.
Now comes another layer: an open world and an emotional experience at its core. And notably, the word “emotional” isn’t new to Hadar’s vocabulary. Last year, quest designer listings were already asking for candidates “passionate about narrative-driven and emotional design.” At this point it’s a pattern, not a coincidence.
Open World and Narrative Focus: What Hadar’s Job Listings Reveal
Piecing together everything that’s surfaced through CDPR’s hiring process, the picture looks like this:
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Open world — explicitly mentioned in the engineering director listing; not a huge surprise from the studio behind Night City and Skellige, but important confirmation nonetheless.
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Story-driven design — emphasis on narrative and character relationships has appeared consistently across multiple job posts.
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Emotional experience — not marketing fluff, but a clear design philosophy that CDPR keeps signalling to prospective hires.
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Original IP — no licenses, no adaptations. The world, its lore, its rules and characters are all being built from scratch inside the studio.
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Unreal Engine — confirmed as the technology foundation back in March 2026.
Put it all together and a familiar silhouette emerges: a large-scale, story-driven open-world RPG where choices and characters matter just as much as combat. It sounds like The Witcher 3 — just in a universe nobody has visited before.
How Many People Are Working on Project Hadar — and What That Means for a Release
Here’s the most telling number: according to CDPR’s Q1 2026 financial results, just 24 developers were working on Hadar as of April 30. That’s actually down slightly from 26 in February. For context:
| Project | Team Size (April 2026) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 4 | 513 developers | Full production |
| Cyberpunk 2 (Orion) | 163 developers | In development |
| Project Sirius | 83 developers | In development |
| Project Hadar | 24 developers | Prototyping |
That’s a tiny team by AAA standards. The conclusion is straightforward: Hadar is still deep in the concept and prototyping phase, not full production. A proper dev cycle is likely still years away from starting in earnest.
Does that mean an endless wait? Not necessarily. CDPR has shown it can scale teams fast — The Witcher 4’s headcount grew by over 200 developers in a single year. Once Hadar enters full production, expect that number to climb quickly.
Why CDPR’s First Original IP Is Such a Big Deal
This is genuinely uncharted territory for CD Projekt RED. For over two decades, the studio built its reputation working within someone else’s worlds — first adapting Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher books, then licensing Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop universe. Both became iconic. But both came with existing rules, existing fans, and existing expectations.
With Hadar, none of that applies. The studio is constructing the mythology, the aesthetic, the characters and the world logic entirely from the ground up. There are no canon purists waiting to be outraged. No licensing restrictions boxing in the creative vision. But also no built-in fanbase who already loves this world before the first trailer drops.
That’s a genuine risk — and, at the same time, a creative freedom CDPR has never had before.
Everything CD Projekt RED Is Working On Right Now
It’s worth keeping Hadar in perspective: it’s not the studio’s priority, and won’t be for some time. CDPR is currently juggling several major projects simultaneously:
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The Witcher 4 — the flagship with 513 developers, in active full production; this is what fans will see first.
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Cyberpunk 2 (Orion) — the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, with 163 developers currently on board.
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Project Sirius — a multiplayer Witcher spin-off being developed by The Molasses Flood, 83 developers.
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The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past DLC — surprise expansion announced for 2027.
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Project Hadar — earliest stage, 24 developers, prototyping ongoing.
On top of that, CDPR has teased that some previously undisclosed projects are at “advanced stages of development” and could potentially release within the current year or next. The studio’s pipeline is fuller than it’s been in years.
Project Hadar Release Window and What to Expect Next
For the next year or two, Project Hadar will stay quiet. The team is small, prototyping is ongoing, and there’s no reason to expect any kind of official reveal soon. Still, a few things are already becoming clear:
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An open world with a heavy narrative focus is essentially confirmed — it’s baked into the studio’s DNA and the job listings back it up.
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Emotional storytelling, meaningful choices, and complex characters — the things that made The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 unforgettable — appear to be central to Hadar’s design philosophy too.
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Unreal Engine is already confirmed as the technical foundation.
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A first real reveal is unlikely until The Witcher 4 is out and the studio shifts its public focus.
For CDPR fans, Project Hadar is the horizon beyond the horizon. First comes The Witcher 4, then Cyberpunk 2, and somewhere beyond that — a brand new world the studio is quietly building right now, one prototype at a time. Given what they’ve done with every open world they’ve touched so far, the wait will probably be worth it.
