CD Projekt Red has completed the foundational “world vision” for Project Hadar, the mysterious new IP being developed alongside The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2.

Speaking with Polish business publication PAP Biznes, CD Projekt Red Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said the studio now has a coherent vision for the new universe and its key elements. Establishing that foundation reportedly took several years, with Nowakowski describing the process as the company’s “biggest undertaking to date.”

That statement does not necessarily mean Hadar will be larger or more expensive than The Witcher 4 or Cyberpunk 2. It appears to refer specifically to the challenge of building an original setting from the ground up, which is not something CD Projekt Red has ever previously done.

The studio adapted Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels for The Witcher series, while Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the tabletop universe created by Mike Pondsmith. Hadar will be the first franchise for which CDPR owns and has created the underlying setting itself.

Now that its broader world and distinguishing characteristics have been established, the development team is designing potential game elements, creating small prototypes, and experimenting with gameplay. However, Nowakowski cautioned that the project has not yet entered pre-production and consequently remains years away from release.

CD Projekt Red first announced Hadar during its 2022 strategy update, where the company said conceptual work had begun in 2021. From what it seems, they're still intending for this new IP to remain within the type of narrative-driven role-playing games for which it is already known rather than use its new IP to move into a completely unfamiliar genre.

More recent recruitment materials described Hadar as an “emotional, open-world experience” designed to remain with players. A listing for an Engineering Director also confirmed that the game is being developed with Unreal Engine 5.

That engine choice aligns Hadar with CDPR’s wider production strategy as well. The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 are similarly being developed with Unreal Engine after the company moved away from the proprietary REDengine used for The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. We did a deep dive with the art team all about using REDengine to develop Cyberpunk 2077 very recently.

Hadar’s production team remains considerably smaller than those assigned to CDPR’s established franchises. In April, the project employed 24 developers, compared with 513 on The Witcher 4 and 163 on Cyberpunk 2.

The project is therefore making tangible progress, but the latest update is best understood as an early development milestone rather than an indication that a reveal is approaching.

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