CD Projekt Red’s long‑gestating Project Hadar has finally crossed the threshold from abstract ideation into a fully coherent creative vision — a milestone that arrives after several years of conceptual struggle, internal reinvention, and a pipeline reshaped by both crisis and ambition.
For the first time since its quiet reveal in 2022, CD Projekt Red has confirmed that Project Hadar — its first wholly original IP — now has a fully defined creative direction. According to joint CEO Michał Nowakowski, the studio has spent “several years” wrestling with the foundations of this new universe, finally emerging with a vision strong enough to begin early production.
This moment is more than a development update. It is the culmination of a five‑year metamorphosis inside CDPR, a period marked by public setbacks, internal restructuring, and an unprecedented expansion of its creative pipeline. To understand why Hadar matters — and why it took so long — we have to rewind to the beginning of this era.
The Post‑Cyberpunk Reckoning (2020–2022)
Five years ago, CD Projekt Red was still reeling from the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The December 2020 release became one of the most infamous debuts in gaming history: broken console versions, pulled listings, lawsuits, and a collapse in investor confidence.
Internally, developers described the aftermath as “group therapy.” Yet the studio rebuilt the game piece by piece — patches, overhauls, and eventually the Phantom Liberty expansion. By 2026, Cyberpunk 2077 had climbed to a 95% “Overwhelmingly Positive” Steam rating and surpassed 35 million copies sold, becoming one of CDPR’s most profitable titles ever.
This recovery was not just technical. It reshaped the studio’s philosophy: more transparency, more realistic timelines, and a commitment to diversifying beyond its two legacy franchises.
The 2022 Roadmap: A New Era of Ambition
In late 2022, CD Projekt Red unveiled a massive multi‑year roadmap — the largest in its history. It included a new Witcher trilogy, multiple Witcher spin‑offs, the Cyberpunk sequel Orion, and one mysterious codename: Hadar.
Unlike The Witcher or Cyberpunk, Hadar would not be based on novels or tabletop lore. It would be built from nothing — a blank universe requiring every rule, faction, and thematic pillar to be invented internally.
At the time, Hadar was described only as “in the conceptual phase.” A tiny incubation team began exploring ideas, but the project remained a distant horizon.
The Witcher Renaissance (2022–2026)
While Hadar incubated quietly, CDPR’s pipeline exploded with Witcher‑related development:
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered
- The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past DLC
- The Witcher 4 (Polaris)
- A full new Witcher trilogy
- The Witcher Sirius
- The Witcher Remake
Across its studios — Warsaw, Krakow, The Molasses Flood, and Fool’s Theory — more than 500 developers were assigned to Witcher projects.
This surge served two purposes: stabilize revenue after Cyberpunk’s rocky start, and give CDPR time to incubate Hadar without rushing it.
Cyberpunk’s Second Life: Orion
Parallel to the Witcher renaissance, CDPR confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 Orion, the sequel built in Unreal Engine 5. The project symbolized the studio’s renewed confidence in the franchise after its dramatic turnaround.
With Cyberpunk stabilized and Witcher expanding, CDPR finally had the breathing room to invest in a third pillar — the one that would define its future beyond adaptations.
The Slow Birth of Project Hadar (2021–2026)
Hadar’s incubation began in 2021 with a small team tasked with imagining an entirely new universe. For years, progress was slow and mostly invisible. By early 2026, only 24–30 developers were involved, focusing on worldbuilding and prototyping.
The challenge was unprecedented for CDPR. When building The Witcher, the studio inherited Andrzej Sapkowski’s political systems, monster taxonomy, and moral tone. When adapting Cyberpunk, Mike Pondsmith’s decades of lore provided a foundation.
Hadar had no such safety net. Every detail — physics, factions, history, emotional themes — had to be invented from scratch.
Nowakowski described this foundational phase as the studio’s “biggest undertaking to date,” requiring years of debate, drafting, and internal testing before a coherent vision finally emerged.
The Vision Finally Solidifies (2026)
In 2026, CDPR confirmed two major breakthroughs:
- The creative vision is now fully coherent, allowing early production to begin.
- Hadar is officially an open‑world RPG, revealed through an Engineering Director job listing emphasizing emotional impact and immersive worldbuilding.
The team is expected to grow to around 50 developers by the end of 2026, marking the transition from incubation to active development.
The project’s astronomical codename — historically linked to Cyberpunk’s early naming conventions — hints at a possible hybrid or sci‑fi‑infused setting, though CDPR has not confirmed genre specifics.
What is clear is that Hadar represents CDPR’s attempt to build a third franchise capable of standing alongside The Witcher and Cyberpunk — not as an adaptation, but as a universe born entirely from the studio’s imagination.
Why Hadar Matters Now
Project Hadar is more than a new game. It is the symbolic endpoint of CDPR’s five‑year transformation:
- From crisis to recovery
- From two franchises to three
- From adaptations to original creation
- From fractured development to a unified, Unreal Engine 5‑powered future
The studio that once relied on borrowed worlds is now ready to build its own.
And after several years of silence, uncertainty, and conceptual struggle, CD Projekt Red finally knows what Hadar is — and what it wants to become.
A New Universe Begins
As early production ramps up, Hadar stands as CDPR’s boldest gamble yet: a world without precedent, a story without inherited lore, and a franchise designed to carry the studio into the next decade.
The journey to reach this point was long, messy, and transformative. But the vision is finally real — and for the first time, CD Projekt Red is ready to build a universe entirely its own.
