Project Hadar: CD Projekt Red says development has begun

Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski confirmed the team is already working on the game, but Project Hadar is not yet in pre-production.

IGN also mentions The Witcher 4, a projected 2028 release, and a third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

What happened

IGN reported on 15 October 2026 that CD Projekt Red has taken another step forward with Project Hadar, the studio’s next franchise. According to the company, the so-called world-vision phase has been completed and work is now underway on the game itself. That means the project has moved beyond the stage where only the concept, tone, and direction of the new IP are being defined.

At the same time, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski made it clear that Project Hadar is not yet in pre-production. That keeps the project in an early development phase, even though CD Projekt Red says the conceptual phase is now behind it. The wording in the article leaves some room for interpretation about the exact internal stage, but the key point is that the team is working on the game and has not yet entered formal pre-production.

The article also refers to earlier information from September, when IGN said the Hadar team had more than 30 developers and was expected to grow to 50 people by the end of the year. It also cites a June job listing that described Project Hadar as an “emotional, open-world experience” set in the Hadar universe. In the article, that listing is used as an additional clue about the direction of the new IP, but not as a full reveal of the project.

IGN also mentions other CD Projekt Red projects in the same piece. The Witcher 4 is named as a game the studio is working on, with a projected release in 2028. A third major expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is also mentioned, under the title Songs of the Past, with a release next year. Based on the material provided, it remains unclear whether that title has been officially confirmed or is being reported as a working title.

Background

Project Hadar is a new IP from CD Projekt Red and is separate from The Witcher and Cyberpunk. The studio uses the term world-vision for the phase in which the game’s concept and direction are defined. In the material provided, that phase is explicitly described as complete, which means the studio has moved beyond worldbuilding and early ideation.

The mention of Songs of the Past should be read carefully: based on the material provided, it is not clear whether this is an official title or a reported working title. The staffing figures for Project Hadar also come from an earlier September report and are not confirmed again in the material here. So the only certainty is that IGN cites those numbers in the article, not that they were still exactly the same on 15 October 2026.

The combination of a completed world-vision phase and the absence of pre-production shows that CD Projekt Red has moved the project forward, but not into the stage where full production planning, content development, and larger-scale team expansion typically come together. The material does not mention any concrete gameplay details, platforms, or release date for Project Hadar itself. It also does not confirm what the studio means internally by “the team has begun work on the game,” beyond the fact that Nowakowski says the project is still not in pre-production.

For The Witcher 4, the article only says the game is in development and that 2028 is being cited as the expected release window. The same caution applies to the extra The Witcher 3 expansion: the title Songs of the Past is mentioned, but its status as an official announcement remains unclear in the material provided. The main takeaway is that CD Projekt Red has several projects moving at once, with Project Hadar now in a more active early stage than before.

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• Cyberpunk 2 grows with new input from Gabe Amatangelo and CD Projekt Red

Sources

• IGN: “CD Projekt has officially begun work on Project Hadar, but it’s not in pre-production yet”
• Earlier CD Projekt Red report from September on the size of the Hadar team
• June job listing describing Project Hadar as an “emotional, open-world experience”