CD Projekt Red completes world vision for Project Hadar, not yet in pre-production

CD Projekt Red has finished the foundational world vision for Project Hadar, the new IP being developed alongside The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2. Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said this in an interview with the Polish business publication PAP Biznes, as relayed by 80 Level.

Nowakowski described building that foundation as the studio's biggest undertaking to date, one that took several years. He said the studio now has a coherent vision for the world and its key elements, and that the team has started work on the game. 80 Level notes the remark most likely refers to building an original setting from scratch, not to Hadar being larger or costlier than the other projects. The Witcher draws on Andrzej Sapkowski's novels and Cyberpunk 2077 on Mike Pondsmith's tabletop universe, so Hadar is the first franchise where CDPR owns the underlying setting.

With the world defined, the team is designing possible game elements, making small prototypes and experimenting with gameplay. Nowakowski cautioned that the project is not yet in pre-production, so it remains years from release. 80 Level's own reading is that this is an early milestone and not a sign that a reveal is near.

Hadar was first announced in CDPR's 2022 strategy update, which said conceptual work began in 2021. Recent recruitment materials, per 80 Level, call it an "emotional, open-world experience." A listing for an Engineering Director indicates the game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 are also on Unreal Engine, after the company moved away from its proprietary REDengine.

The team is still small. In April the project had 24 developers, against 513 on The Witcher 4 and 163 on Cyberpunk 2, according to the source. Nothing here changes release expectations for any CDPR title. There is no release window, platform or genre detail beyond the open-world, narrative-driven description.