In a post celebrating his latest haul of fantasy novels, Weber posted a picture featuring three books, with Sapkowski’s The Witcher: Crossroads of Ravens taking center stage. In his posts, however, Weber did note that he was already aware of the more important points thanks to his work on The Witcher 4. “Sadly due to the requirements of the job I know all the most important points already,” said Weber when asked by a fan about being spoiled about its story. “But I’ll still enjoy it!”

Responding to another post about whether those points have influenced anything in The Witcher games in the past, Weber also noted that he can’t exactly reveal how CD Projekt RED will make use of the plot points of Crossroads of Ravens for The Witcher 4. He did, however, mention the fact that another The Witcher book – Season of Storms – was released while The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was still under development. The studio then tried incorporating some of the book’s plot points into the game as well.

“I can’t reveal how exactly we’ll do it, but Season of Storms also came out while we developed The Witcher 3, so we still tried to include some of the new elements,” wrote Weber. “You can expect something similar!”

Weber had previously spoken about the pressure that CD Projekt RED feels to make sure that The Witcher 4 surpasses The Witcher 3, and how the studio is developing the upcoming title. 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?’”

When it comes to the studio doing justice to the legacy of the beloved RPG, Weber spoke about how the studio was trying to make sure it follows similar philosophies to what it had during the development of The Witcher 3. At the same time, the studio is also trying to make sure that they don’t just repeat what they’ve already made.

“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 is under development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The title doesn’t yet have a release date.

Currently in the pre-production stage, the game aims to enter full production sometime this year, CD Projekt CEO Adam Badowski has told Reuters. Badowski also confirms that around 400 people will be working on the game “by the middle of the year”. Back in November, that number stood at around 330 people.

CD Projekt RED announced in March 2022 that it had started working on the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, and that it would be the first instalment in a new mainline trilogy for the fantasy RPG series. It will be CDPR’s first game to be built on Unreal Engine 5, and game director Sebastian Kalemba has said it’s going to be “an excellent entry point” for newcomers.

Of course, The Witcher 4 isn’t the only project CD Projekt RED is working on. Work on Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel is also underway, with the project set to have around 80 people working on it by the end of the year. Multiplayer elements are also being considered for the game.

During its recent investor presentation, CD Projekt RED revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher series have collectively sold over 100 million units. It’s worth mentioning, however, that that number only includes the mainline Witcher RPG series, which means sales of Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales are not included in that total figure.

CD Projekt RED has also revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold over 25 million units worldwide. Its recently-released expansion, Phantom Liberty, sold 3 million units in its first week. Meanwhile, earlier this year, the developer revealed that The Witcher 3 had sold over 50 million units worldwide.

Both franchises are also already looking to the future. The next mainline Witcher game is currently in development, and will kick off a new trilogy, while a ground-up open world remake of the original Witcher is being developed in collaboration with Fool’s Theory.

Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel has also entered early development.

CD PROJEKT RED — Number of Games Sold pic.twitter.com/1GB7hBweV9

— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) October 5, 2023

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 a CDPR expansion to date. After the expansion launches, work will also begin on Project Orion, a 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 a 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 a 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.

CD Projekt has announced that The Witcher 3 has now sold over 50 million units worldwide since its launch in 2015. As of April last year, the game had sold over 40 million units, so clearly it has continued to sell at an impressive rate, especially for a game that’s not particularly new.

Meanwhile, CD Projekt also confirms that the collective sales of the Witcher franchise now stand at over 75 million units worldwide, up from 65 million units a year ago.

CD Projekt RED has a number of new The Witcher games currently in the works. The studio is, of course, working on the next mainline game in the series, which will be the first in a new trilogy. A ground-up remake of the original game is also in development in collaboration with Fool’s Theory, and unlike the original, is set to be an open world game. Meanwhile, The Molasses Flood has a spinoff in the works, though that project recently got rebooted, which was followed by the developer suffering layoffs.

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) May 29, 2023

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) May 29, 2023

CD Projekt confirmed to PC Gamer that 29 people, most from The Molasses Flood, had departed the team. A representative for the company said, “Because the project changed, so has the composition of the team that’s working on it – mainly on The Molasses Flood’s side.” As a result, twenty-one team members in the United States and eight in Poland suffered layoffs.

It’s a pretty significant amount, considering Project Sirius had over 60 developers involved when first announced. However, when discussing its decision in March to re-evaluate the title’s development, CFO Piotr Nielubowicz said, “It’s better to cut costs early – and even restart if needed – than to carry on.” The layoffs may be part of that cost-cutting measure.

Project Sirius doesn’t have a release window or announced platforms. With these changes, it could be much farther off than previously planned. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

Bailey was laid off on May 12th and “enjoyed the work I’d been doing until my last day and would love to keep doing that.” Based on the timing of her tweet, Falck may also have been laid off on the same day and is seeking new opportunities, ideally as an environment artist on a “stylized game.”

Following its initial announcement, Project Sirius made the news back in March when CD Projekt announced “an impairment allowance about expenses incurred in the scope of development work“ for the same, which would “accordingly burden the financial results for the first quarter of 2023.” It confirmed a “new framework” for the project last week, just one day before the layoffs seemingly occurred.

What this means for the project and its scope, much less for The Molasses Flood, remains unknown. Project Sirius is without a release date or official name, so stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Yesterday I was laid off from Molasses Flood.
It's not as fun to update the bio this time.
I enjoyed the work I'd been doing until my last day and would love to keep doing that.

If anyone has any leads on a narrative and/or tech design position I'd be happy to take a look.

— Robert Bailey (@thrownerror) May 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/EleanoreFalck/status/1657095081155780608

That process, it seems, has now been completed. In a recently published regulatory announcement, the company confirmed “the conclusion of work on defining a new framework for Project Sirius“.

Exactly what that entails in terms of the scope and nature of the game as per its new vision remains unclear, though CD Projekt does confirm that the framework will lead to a “partial reversal” of 21.5 million PLN against its impairment allowance of 33.4 million PLN, while part of the development expenditures, amounting to 2.7 million PLN, will also be written off.

In addition to multiple Witcher projects, CD Projekt RED is currently also working on the expansion Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, which will be followed by a full-fledged sequel codenamed Project Orion.

In a recent earnings conference, the company’s CFO, Piotr Nielubowicz, offered some new details on the development, what it means for the project, and why the decision was taken. Describing Project Sirius as a unique project that is new to CD Projekt RED as a company “in terms of design”, Nielubowicz said that “to stay in control and keep the right course”, the company decided to re-evaluate it, feeling that “cutting costs” early would be a smarter option than carrying on further in a direction that they were unsure about.

“I’m aware that it’s not great to hear from a company that the project is being re-evaluated,” he said (via VGC. “But at the same time, in order to stay innovative we must experiment and be brave when trying new paths, and to stay in control and keep the right course, especially with a project that is new to us in terms of design, developed by a new studio in our family.

“We need to keep evaluating the situation as we move along. It’s better to cut costs early – and even restart if needed – than to carry on.”

CEO Adam Kiciński also chimed in with similar statements, saying, “Our intention was to cut costs early and give ourselves time for re-assessment. We don’t want to carry on with projects that we are not aligned with. So basically that’s all we’d like to share about Project Sirius for now.”

What that means for the project as a whole remains to be seen, but while it’s clear as of now what stage of production the game is now in following its development apparently having been rebooted or what its scope will be moving forward, one thing that is abundantly clear that one way or another, The Molasses Flood might be starting from scratch with this one.

According to Kiciński, the studio is still very much in the process of getting familiar with the new engine, but though development for the aforementioned Polaris itself hasn’t accelerated following the switch in engine, it will apparently “smoothen production” for its sequels. In fact, Kiciński says shifting to Unreal Engine 5 is a big reason for why CD Projekt RED previously said it plans on launching the entire new trilogy of The Witcher games within six years of each other.

“We are preparing things on the pipeline side and toolset sides. Some developers are still learning the [Unreal Engine 5] technology, and at the same time, there are teams working together with Epic on all aspects that are needed for our open-world, story-driven RPGs,” he said (via Wccftech). “Definitely, for [our] first project, Polaris, it will… maybe not slow down, but it won’t accelerate the [development] processes. But for the next projects, we assume that it should smoothen production. That was one of the reasons behind saying we want to release three big Witcher games within six years, starting with the release of Polaris, which is The Witcher 4.”

Back in May last year, CDPR confirmed that The Witcher 4 was already in pre-production and had over a hundred people working on it, and that the switch to Unreal Engine 5 had already brought about improved development efficiency.

In fact, The Witcher Remake, which will be a fully open world game, is also being developed on Unreal Engine 5 by Fool’s Theory in collaboration with CD Projekt RED, and is expected to launch after Project Polaris.