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Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.
CD Projekt Red's "Project Hadar" is apparently coming along
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CD Projekt Red currently has a lot of irons in the fire. In addition to the upcoming The Witcher 3 DLC, Songs of the Past, the studio is also working on a new Witcher trilogy beginning with The Witcher 4. If that wasn’t enough, it has also announced a remake of The Witcher 1, a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and a multiplayer Witcher game. However, among its upcoming titles, there’s one game that’s been shrouded in mystery: “Project Hadar.”
Project Hadar is a new standalone IP that CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is developing in-house. When the game was first announced four years ago as part of the company’s long-term product outlook, CDPR said, “Hadar is a codename for a third, entirely distinct IP, created from scratch within CDPR. The project is in the earliest stages of the creative process, which means we are not developing any game yet, but working exclusively on the foundation for this new setting.”
In an interview with the Polish publication Biznes Pap, CDPR CEO Michał Nowakowski gave the first substantive update on the game since it was announced, saying that the team has completed its “world vision” stage.
“This has been our biggest undertaking to date, taking us several years, but at this point we can say we have a coherent vision for this world and its key elements,” Nowakowski said. “The team has begun work on the game, although it’s not yet in pre-production.” He added that small prototypes are being created, and gameplay elements are also being tested. While Project Hadar still seems years away, its setting appears to be established. This will be the studio’s first original IP, after adapting Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series and Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk tabletop RPG.
What’s the release schedule for CD Projekt’s other upcoming games?
CDPR’s next major release is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Songs of the Past, coming out sometime in 2027. It will be the game’s first expansion in more than a decade, following up on 2016’s Blood and Wine. In preparation for the add-on, The Witcher 3 recently received a new remaster on PC and consoles. The studio’s only other project with a release year is The Witcher 4, which is planned for 2028. It will follow Geralt’s adoptive daughter, Ciri, as she takes on his duties as a monster hunter.
The Witcher 4 marks the start of CDPR’s ambitious plan to release a full Witcher trilogy over six years, which, if spaced evenly, would mean The Witcher 5 would release in 2031 and The Witcher 6 in 2034. Given how long modern AAA game development cycles tend to be, it will be a difficult task to pull off.