CD Projekt is RED going to have several major projects on its plate in the coming years, but it seems its current headcount of employees is more than what it will need. In a recently published organizational update, the company has announced that it will be laying off around 100 people between now and Q1 2024, which will account for roughly 9% of its total workforce.
The developer says that it has “carefully assessed all teams in the company” and determined that it is overstaffed, and that it won’t have “other opportunities” for surplus employees to work on going forward, hence the layoffs.
“To meet our own high expectations and ambitions to create the best role-playing games, we not only want to have the best people but also the right teams,” wrote CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński. “What we mean by that is having teams that are built around our projects’ needs; teams that are more agile and more effective. At this point in time, we’re certain that for CD PROJEKT RED to grow, we need to be consistent in implementing that approach.
“We’ve carefully assessed all teams in the company in terms of their expected contribution to the delivery of our strategy. There’s no easy way to say this, but today we are overstaffed. We have talented people on board who are finishing their tasks and — based on current and expected project needs — we already know we don’t have other opportunities for them in the next year. The outcome is the studio parting ways with around 100 people, which is roughly 9% of the entire team. This will not be immediate as some employees will be let go as late as Q1 2024 but, in the spirit of transparency, we’ve chosen to share the information now. We want team members to have ample time to process and adjust to the change, and we’ve also made sure to offer everyone a comprehensive severance package.”
Currently, the majority of CD Projekt RED’s staff is working on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, which has the biggest ever budget for CDPR expansion to date. After the expansion launches, work will also begin on Project Orion, full-fledged sequel that will be developed by a newly-established studio in Boston. Orion will be directed by Phantom Liberty’s director, Gabe Amatangelo, and is expected to have development team of 250-500 developers.
CD Projekt RED is currently also working on Project Polaris, the next mainline instalment in the Witcher series, which will kick off new trilogy of games. Meanwhile, CDPR-owned The Molasses Flood is developing Witcher spinoff Project Sirius, though the studio suffered layoffs earlier this year as well, after the project was rebooted.
In addition, CD Projekt RED also has a completely new IP in the works in Project Hadar, which is set to be another RPG.