During an earnings call, one investor actually asked when the company would start marketing, and whether it would be a “longer” campaign or a possible shadow drop. Co-CEO Michał Nowakowski responded, “I’d like to say everything is a possibility. But having said that, our experience and our preference, given the types of games we make, is for longer-term marketing campaigns; we think they tend to work a little bit better than, say, a live drop at some conference or event. So I’d point in that direction.”

Long story short, if The Witcher 3’s new DLC ends up real, don’t expect it to drop out of nowhere suddenly. Then again, whether it will be announced several weeks or months out from launch remains unknown.

Either way, Chief Financial Officer Piotr Nielubowicz reiterated that the company needs to earn 527 million zloty or roughly $143 million to meet its net profit goal. “As always, I’d like to emphasize we still see it as a very ambitious goal. We continue to believe that with strong back catalogue sales performance this year and the new content we’re planning to release, we have a fair chance of reaching it.”

With Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt still racking in the sales (to say nothing of Phantom Liberty, which crossed 10 million sales in May 2025), this new project would certainly put the developer over the top. The question is: When can we expect an announcement?

An analyst told Strefa Inwestorów that they expect it to launch in Q3 2026, taking into account that Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected in November. They felt that September was the “best window,” especially since it would be a nice “back to school” period. Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski believed it could launch in May, retailing for $30, but if an announcement were to happen, it must be in April.

Of course, as we continue to debate when it could launch, CD Projekt RED is hard at work on The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2, for which it’s scaled up both teams. Project Hadar, a brand new IP, is also making progress with the developer prototyping “specific elements.”

Having entered full production in late 2024, it’s interesting to see The Witcher 4’s development team continuing to grow. By comparison, the team working on Project Orion aka Cyberpunk 2 has added approximately 14 developers over the past several months. It’s worth remembering, however, that CDPR previously outlined plans to more than double the size of the Boston, Warsaw, and Vancouver teams.

The plan is for Cyberpunk 2 to have more than 450 developers by 2027. As The Witcher 4’s development is showcasing, however, that could mean full production begins either later this year or early next year (it entered pre-production in May 2025). The development team will then continue scaling throughout until it hits the intended target, and nothing says it can’t increase even further.

The Witcher 4 doesn’t have a launch date or platforms, outside of PC, obviously. Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski believes it could arrive in late 2027 with the rumored Witcher 3 DLC – now believed to be coming in September – serving to bridge the story.

According to the analyst, this puts the release window for the rumored DLC at Q3, before November. They also noted that September likely works as “the best window” for this DLC, since it tends to be a “nice ‘back to school’ period.”

“I didn’t include DLC for The Witcher 3 in the model, but like everyone else, I assume that CD Projekt will try to release the DLC before the new GTA release date to avoid this difficult period for other titles,” said the analyst (via machine translation). “So definitely before November, probably around Q3. I think September is the best window. In the summer, gamers are on vacation, and September seems like a nice ‘back to school’ period. However, things could change. They might come up with the idea to release it in two or three months.”

“We can toss around potential dates, but the company likely takes into account many factors that influence the release window. They’ll probably also have to ensure that the quality from Fool’s Theory is fully satisfactory, so I prefer to assume it will be a bit later.”

Reports of this potential DLC first started coming up back in December, coming in courtesy of Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski. The DLC is expected to bridge the gap in the story between the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the upcoming The Witcher 4. According to Chrzanowski, the DLC will be priced at $30, and will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It was also believed to originally be slated for release to coincide with 11th anniversary celebrations for the release of The Witcher 3.

If this DLC comes out, it will be the third major one to come to The Witcher 3, after Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. The two previous DLCs already wrapped up much of protagonist Geralt’s narrative arc. The new DLC will likely help in explaining why Ciri is taking over as the protagonist in The Witcher 4. It is also rumoured to be in development at Fool’s Theory.

Earlier this month, notable leaker NateTheHate said in a report that this DLC actually exists. While not too many details were revealed, the leaker noted that what they indicate is that the story will largely revolve around Geralt.

While CD Projekt RED is yet to make any official announcement for the DLC, the studio is confirmed to be hard at work on a number of projects, including The Witcher 4 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, as well as a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077.

Chrzanowski has noted that the actual development price is likely closer to PLN 1.4 billion (roughly $388 million). He also expects CD Projekt to spend a similar amount on its marketing, which will likely bring up its overall expenses to the $800 million mark. He has also offered predictions about the development budget of other CD Projekt titles, such as the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Project Orion.

He has predicted that Orion‘s development will cost around PLN 1.5 billion (roughly $416 million), with a chunk associated with the rumoured multiplayer game modes. Along with this, the launch window for Orion has also been reportedly pushed back to Q4 2030.

Chrzanowski had previously reaffirmed that the DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is “100 percent” happening. He cites the company’s incentive program being short PLN 700 million (roughly $194 million), which may be met if new paid content for one of CD Projekt’s games is released.

As for the rumours about new The Witcher 3 DLC, Chrzanowski predicts that it will be released in May, and will sell 11 million copies over the next year. He has also predicted a development budget of PLN 52 million (roughly $14.5 million) for this DLC.

While CD Projekt RED is yet to make any DLC announcements, reports have indicated that it will take players to Zerrikania, east of Nilfgaard. Along with this, IGN Poland has also claimed to have known about the DLC for “a very long time”. It is worth noting that these details about the DLC are from early in its development, and that they may have been changed since then. Kovir is noted as another possible location for its story.

Development of The Witcher 4 has been going quietly at CD Projekt RED, with no new details having been revealed in quite some time. Back in December, however, CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski had spoken about the company’s hiring policies, and whether it has been changed because of the rise of generative AI in the IT industry.

“We are not really hiring ‘classic’ IT – but I understand this is supposed to be about gaming industry talent – the availability of talent has perhaps increased a bit over the past three years, but I’m not sure I’d actually ascribe it to AI, to be perfectly honest – some studios have been going through turmoil; there were some project closures and so on, which led to many redundancies in the gaming industry; we’ve all seen that – it’s been very dramatic in many cases – but – literally kill me here, but I don’t recall a single time when it would be attributable directly to AI,” he explained.

He also noted that the company isn’t looking to reduce its headcount due to generative AI anytime soon. Rather, the company’s use of AI largely revolves around “productivity areas”, and he isn’t convinced that the technology can “sit down and make games”.

“That’s our take. It doesn’t mean it’s not gonna be useful, but it’s not gonna be making The Witcher 5, or 6, or anything like that,” he said.

In a post on his Patreon, Ross wrote about CD Projekt following the actions taken by Take-Two Interactive—referring to the parent company of Rockstar Games having issued a DMCA takedown request to remove mods for Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as for Hangar 13’s Mafia: Definitive Edition back in 2022.

“Now that the dust has settled, I’m even more sorry to announce that we are leaving behind an adventure that so many of you deeply loved and enjoyed. CD PROJEKT S.A. decided that they would follow in Take-Two Interactive Software’s steps and issued a DMCA notice against me for the removal of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod,” wrote Ross.

He also addressed the fact that the only way CD Projekt would have allowed work on the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod to continue would be if Ross were to stop locking access to it behind a Patreon subscription. Declining to do the work for free, Ross decided to take the mod down instead.

“At least they were a little more open about it, and I could get a reply both from their legal department and from the VP of business development. But in the end it amounted to the same iron-clad corpo logic: every little action that a company takes is in the name of money, but everything that modders do must be absolutely for free,” he said.

CD Projekt’s VP of business development Jan Rosner took to social media to offer further clarification, noting that the mod’s existence went against the company’s guidelines about mods being available for free. “This directly violates our Fan Content Guidelines: we never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” he wrote. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.”

Further in his post, Ross also confirmed that his next project will revolve around bringing VR support to Larian Studios’ award-winning RPG Baldur’s Gate 3. He wrapped up his post by releasing an early version of the mod without putting it through testing.

“Despite everything, I really want to end this on a positive note, so I’ll jump the gun and just release today the new conversion I have been working on, without going through the ordinary testing cycle. Maybe it will be a little rough around the edges, but we’ll take care of that, as we always do,” he wrote.

The takedown of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod comes just days after Meta announced the closure of a number of game development studios under its VR-specific Reality Labs division.

Among the studios affected by these closures are Armature Studios, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru Games. Batman: Arkham Shadow developer Camouflaj has also been affected. However, it hasn’t been closed down. Rather, it was hit by lay-offs, and its few remaining employees are now working on projects that better align with Meta’s current business plans.

It’s been five years since launch. Looking back, what stands out to you most about Cyberpunk 2077’s release, both the highs and the things you wish you’d handled differently?

What stands out most for me is the contrast. On one hand, the ambition, the world, the characters: the things players immediately connected with emotionally. On the other, the reality of how we launched, and not fully delivering on our vision. That being said, I’m so proud of how the team responded afterward; it took some real grit and resilience. The story of Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t just about the launch, it’s also about everything that came after.

"The story of Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t just about the launch, it’s also about everything that came after."

Compared to the launch version, the game has changed dramatically. When you look at the journey from 1.0 to where it is today, what were the biggest lessons CDPR took away, creatively, technically, and organizationally?

Creatively, we learned the importance of focus and discipline. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 works best when its systems, narrative, and themes all reinforce each other, rather than competing for attention, or even openly working against each other. One thing we built on as much as we could, but we could have been smarter about implementing when designing the game, is elements of ludonarrative dissonance. V is dying, vomiting blood, and coughing, but role-playing game progression makes them more powerful with every finished quest. We used this to strengthen the narrative and feeling of loss, as every step V takes brings the inevitability of terminal illness closer, no matter how powerful you feel. We used that tension as well as we could, but could have focused on it earlier.

Technically, we learned how critical a strong, scalable foundation is. Many of the improvements players see today were only possible because we reworked core systems instead of layering fixes on top — sometimes ripping the guts out and redoing it is the only way. Ambition needs to go hand in hand with technical possibilities, and limitations need to be respected and used as a stimulus to make smarter design decisions.

Organizationally, the biggest lesson was alignment. Clear ownership, better cross-team communication, and more realistic planning made a huge difference, and you saw the results of the changes we made internally in Phantom Liberty. Cyberpunk forced us to grow up as a studio; we have redone or iterated most of our procedures, and grew a habit of constantly optimizing and refining that process.

"Many of the improvements players see today were only possible because we reworked core systems instead of layering fixes on top"

How far back does Phantom Liberty actually go in terms of planning? Was the expansion always envisioned as another major chapter within Night City, or was there ever a version on the table where players would leave the city entirely?

Phantom Liberty existed as an idea relatively early, but its final form evolved over time. From the start, we felt Night City still had untold stories worth exploring, especially stories that leaned into espionage, power, and control. Dogtown allowed us to show a different face of the city, one that felt familiar but also dangerous and unpredictable.

With all of our expansions, the goal is to strengthen the main game so players who reach out for it many years after the release will feel how naturally it fits into overall design, and most of the time won’t even realize what was added in the expansion and what components were always there.

What inspired the decision to connect Phantom Liberty so directly to the base game’s endgame and outcomes? What did you want those added options to say thematically about V’s story?

Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG and ultimately a story about choices and consequences. We didn’t want Phantom Liberty to feel like a detached side story, it was supposed to be a part of the main narrative, neatly connected to the motivation of the main character. We wanted it to matter. By connecting it to the endgame, we could ask harder questions about V’s survival, sacrifice, and agency. Not every choice leads to a happy ending, but every choice says something about who V is and what they’re willing to give up.

"We didn’t want Phantom Liberty to feel like a detached side story, it was supposed to be a part of the main narrative, neatly connected to the motivation of the main character."

Our game is a narrative about terminal illness and dreams of becoming a legend getting crashed early by the inevitability of death. Placing an expansion as a narrative branch anywhere but in the middle of the story would have undermined the main premise of the game. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt we were able to continue Geralt’s story by placing Blood and Wine after the events of the main game, but because of the very nature of Cyberpunk 2077, hooking it up as a branch of the main story was the only strong option we saw.

Do you have a personal favourite ending? Which one resonates most with you in terms of story, emotional payoff, and character arcs, and why?

I don’t think I can pick a single “best” ending, but the endings that resonate with me most are the quieter ones, where victory is ambiguous and the emotional cost is clear. Cyberpunk isn’t about saving the world; it’s about surviving it, sometimes at the expense of your dreams. Endings that embrace that tension feel the most honest to me.

Many of them have this component and shades of meaning, designed to make the player question their decisions. The introduction of Johnny Silverhand is intentionally antagonistic; he is conflicted with himself and angry, ready to kill you to stop feeling. And throughout the game, V’s and the player’s perception of him change. It’s heartbreaking to see him go, and it’s moving to me when people decide to give up V’s body at the end so Johnny can live. This transformative arc takes empathy, and that is something beautiful about humans. Despite the beginning of this relationship, for some players compassion is the answer.

"It’s heartbreaking to see him go, and it’s moving to me when people decide to give up V’s body at the end so Johnny can live."

What are your favourite side quests across the base game and Phantom Liberty? Are there any that you feel best represent what Cyberpunk does at its strongest?

Our games are a melting pot of genres and themes. From this goulash and personal touch of many individual creators, who have common goals, emerge quests executed with care. From the base game, quests like Sinnerman or Dream On represent Cyberpunk at its strongest: morally uncomfortable, thematically dense, and deeply human. The storyline of Judy and Evelyn, contrasted with Flaming Crotch Man; the stories of Skippy and the sentient vending machine, together they deliver a blend of noir, tragedy, comedy, and pastiche all aligned by one stage: Night City.

In Phantom Liberty, I’m very proud of how side content blends seamlessly with the main narrative. Many of those quests don’t announce themselves as important, but they linger with players long after they’re finished. The spy storyline leads V through a variety of thriller- and action-inspired sequences, borrowing from documentaries, romances, thrillers, and horrors, moving between Bridge of Spies, Ocean’s Eleven, James Bond, and even Alien: Isolation, united all by the common, very clear narrative thread. Phantom Liberty demonstrated our developed thematic discipline, and portrayed how much variety can be found in a very narrowly defined spy theme.

Thanks again for your time. Is there anything you’d like to say directly to the community and fans who’ve stuck with Cyberpunk 2077 over the years?

Thank you, chooms! Your patience, critique, passion, mods, fan art, videos, and discussions pushed us to make Cyberpunk 2077 the game it is today. This journey wouldn’t have happened without you, and we don’t take that trust lightly. We’re incredibly grateful you stayed with us in Night City.

Chrzanowski’s predictions indicate that the DLC will be priced at $30, and that it will come to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—which originally came out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One all the way back on May 18, 2015. This DLC is also expected to properly kick off the marketing push for The Witcher 4, which is expected to come out in late 2027.

It is worth noting that the two major DLCs released for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine—have already wrapped up the majority of the story arc for protagonist Geralt of Rivia. With that in mind, as well as the fact that The Witcher 4 will feature a brand new protagonist in the form of Geralt’s adopted daughter Ciri, this rumoured DLC will likely give us a deeper glimpse at her story, including the kind of training she goes through to become the hardened witcher we saw in the reveal trailer for The Witcher 4.

Fool’s Theory is rumoured to be taking lead on the development of this DLC, since the studio also has several developers that have previously worked on games in The Witcher franchise in the past. CD Projekt RED itself is yet to make any announcement or offer any confirmation about this DLC, however.

As for the remake of the original The Witcher, CD Projekt RED has confirmed that it is slated for release some time after the release of Polaris—the studio’s internal codename for The Witcher 4. In an earnings call, president and joint CEO of CD Projekt Group Adam Kiciński spoke about how the remake will make use of Unreal Engine 5-based technology that was also used in The Witcher 4.

“Coming back to The Witcher Remake and when it will come,” said Kiciński. “Yes, it will come after Polaris, which is a consequence of how we think about this project. I think The Witcher Remake will be based in big part on technologies from Polaris, so it will be developed partially in parallel to Polaris. But once Polaris is launched, everything for Polaris will be then in the final shape, and it will be partially reused in the remake.”

Fool’s Theory CEO Jakub Rokosz has also spoken about the studio’s work on The Witcher remake back in January 2024, where he noted that the studio will be taking out parts of the original title that are considered bad, outdated or “unnecessarily convoluted” by modern gaming standards.

As part of his response, Nowakowski noted that the general availability of IT talent couldn’t really be attributed directly to the use and proliferation of AI. Rather, it comes down to the “turmoil” that other studios have been going through in recent times thanks to various projects getting canceled.

“We are not really hiring ‘classic’ IT – but I understand this is supposed to be about gaming industry talent – the availability of talent has perhaps increased a bit over the past three years, but I’m not sure I’d actually ascribe it to AI, to be perfectly honest – some studios have been going through turmoil; there were some project closures and so on, which led to many redundancies in the gaming industry; we’ve all seen that – it’s been very dramatic in many cases – but – literally kill me here, but I don’t recall a single time when it would be attributable directly to AI,” he explained.

As for the use of AI, he also mentioned that the technology was being used mostly in “productivity areas.” While he didn’t really expand on what this meant, he also noted that the studio wasn’t looking into reducing its headcount thanks to the power of generative AI tools. Rather, he said that AI can’t really replace employees to the point where it can “sit down and make games”.

“At least I don’t know about that. And as for reducing headcount thanks to AI – I don’t imagine that. Our usage of AI is mainly in the productivity areas, and that’s where we see the largest benefits of that. The benefits are real, they’re meaningful, but it’s not a situation – and I’m unaware of such a situation – where AI could ‘sit down and make games,’ he said. “That’s our take. It doesn’t mean it’s not gonna be useful, but it’s not gonna be making The Witcher 5, or 6, or anything like that.”

The use of AI-based tools was recently discussed at length by Larian Studios founder and Divinity director Swen Vincke. Just last week, he had taken to social media to discuss how irresponsible it would have been for the studio if it hadn’t evaluated the new technology and how it could be used in game development. This statement came just days after Vincke came under fire for having spoken about making use of generative AI to help Larian Studios create concept art for the game.

Similarly, Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse Studios co-founder and series director Daniel Vávra had also spoken about the use of generative AI.

“Absolutely,” said Reeves when asked if he would like to return to the role some day. “I’d love to play Johnny Silverhand again.”

However, if Reeves were to be officially confirmed by CD Projekt RED as returning in the sequel as Johnny Silverhand, those who have finished the story of Cyberpunk 2077 would likely end up with several questions about how this would be possible. Fair warning for those that haven’t yet played the game: THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR CYBERPUNK 2077 BELOW.

The main story of Cyberpunk 2077 largely revolves around the Relic – a piece of technology that was created by Japanese megacorporation Arasaka in its attempts to make its CEO – Sabura Arasaka – immortal, with the Relic seemingly able to store a human soul. In a series of events following a bombastic opening, the story of Cyberpunk 2077 then turns into protagonist V’s fight for survival as they try and figure out how they can get the Relic out of them without hurting themselves.

In a twist, the Relic houses fragments of Johnny Silverhand, who often appears to V during several story moments. Depending on the choices made by players, the ending to Cyberpunk 2077 can involve several different resolutions for Johnny Silverhand, ranging from him disappearing from the world altogether, to V sacrificing themselves to give Johnny another shot at life.

Assuming the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 take place after the events of its predecessor, Johnny Silverhand can’t really show up in the story unless there are flashbacks that date back to before his ill-fated raid on Arasaka tower in 2023. If the story of the sequel is further into the future than even Cyberpunk 2077, this would add a gap of at minimum 54 years – the time gap between Silverhand’s raid on Arasaka tower and the events of the first game.

As for when we can expect the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 to actually come out, we are still seemingly quite a few years away. CD Projekt RED itself is yet to officially unveil the sequel to the world, and the company is likely busier with its development on The Witcher 4. Back in August, the studio revealed that it had been steadily growing its development teams for both titles, however, with the team working on The Witcher 4 now numbering at 444 as of the end of July, while the team working on the Cyberpunk sequel having grown to 116.

“Our recruitment efforts have significantly sped up over the last three months and as a result the total number of talented developers working across our projects has grown by 10% reaching almost 800 people,” said joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski in a presentation to investors. “This growth was primarily driven by our two largest development teams.”

For more details about Cyberpunk 2077, check out our thoughts. The title is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

“Our recruitment efforts have significantly sped up over the last three months and as a result the total number of talented developers working across our projects has grown by 10% reaching almost 800 people,” said joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski in a presentation to investors. “This growth was primarily driven by our two largest development teams.”

“The Witcher 4 team grew to over 440 developers while the Cyberpunk 2 project which transitioned into pre-production recently in Q2 as you may remember added 20 new team members. We anticipate further gradual growth in our total developer headcount by the end of the year, particularly for the teams working on projects in the most advanced stages of production.”

Of the two projects, The Witcher 4 is quite a bit further along in development than the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, as evidenced by the fact that the team for the former is much larger than the latter, as well as the fact that The Witcher 4 was officially unveiled back in December 2024 with a trailer.

Since then, CD Projekt RED has been revealing more details about the action RPG. Back in July, narrative director Philipp Weber spoke about how much pressure the team has been facing to make The Witcher 4 better than its critically-acclaimed and beloved predecessor.

According to Weber, “‘Witcher 3 was one of the best games ever made, how are they going to top it?’” he went on to mention that he agrees with discourse surrounding the 2015 RPG, saying “I’m like ‘yeah, how are we going to do that?’”

“I think the way we want to do justice to the legacy of The Witcher 3 is to take the philosophy we had during The Witcher 3 – how to make a game, how to really care about these things, how to tell stories – and keep that philosophy,” Weber continued. “At the same time, there are new questions we want to answer, because this is supposed to feel like a true sequel, not just redoing what we did before. And I think it’s really trying to have that healthy mix of really moving forward and also trying out some new things, but doing justice to what was there, not trying to beat it.”

The Witcher 4 doesn’t yet have an official release date. The title is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is making use of the most cutting edge technology available for Unreal Engine 5 out there.