CD Projekt Red has announced the codenames and brief descriptions for five new games, including 3 Witcher games, a new Cyberpunk, and a brand new IP.
Revealed on Twitter, it marks a major next step for the developer in multiple respects – from developing its own IP from scratch, to developing multiple ‘full-size’ games at one time. In a separate release, the company says it is also “adding multiplayer to the majority of future projects.” This also marks the first time that we’ve learned the new Witcher trilogy will not be the only new games set in that universe.
The five games are:
- Orion – “A codename for our next Cyberpunk game, which will take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe.” Orion will be developed by a brand new CD Projekt studio set up in the US.
- Polaris – “A codename for the next installment in The Witcher series of games, which we recently announced was in pre-production. It is the beginning of a new saga: we aim to release two more Witcher games after Polaris, creating a new AAA RPG trilogy.” The full trilogy is intended to be released “in a six-year period”.
- canis majoris – “A full-fledged Witcher game, separate to the new Witcher saga starting with Polaris. It will be developed by an external studio headed by experienced developers who have worked on past Witcher games.” It’s not currently clear which developer is working on this project.
- Sirius – “A codename for the game developed by [The Molasses Flood], set in The Witcher universe and created with support from CDPR. It will differ from our past productions, offering multiplayer gameplay on top of a single-player experience including a campaign with quests and a story.”
- Hadar – “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 “
Orion is a codename for our next Cyberpunk game, which will take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe. pic.twitter.com/JoVbCf6jYZ
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) October 4, 2022
Canis Majoris is perhaps the most intriguingly different project for CD Projekt among the list. Developed externally by a currently unknown developer, the strategy announcement explains, “This is the first such product being developed outside of the Group. However, this does not imply that its quality will lag behind our in-house productions. From the technological standpoint it will be based on Unreal Engine 5, along with the toolset created for Polaris. Expect additional announcements soon.”
Canis Majoris marks what seems to be a newly open CD Projekt, which is willing to work with partners on both games and other media after the success of Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. “Our goal is to work with experienced partners who can meet our quality requirements and deliver worthwhile experiences for our fans,” said CFO Michał Nowakowski. “We are doing this to create new, exciting ways of interacting with our brands, and also to enable our internal teams to focus on what drives us as a company: developing revolutionary role-playing games.”
Details on the new IP, Hadar, are understandably scant but Nowakowski added, “We started toying with the idea several years ago. Early-stage conceptual work commenced in 2021, and – for the first time in our history – the IP is being incubated entirely within CD Projekt Red. It is important to understand that right now we are still working on basic concepts and laying the groundwork for this new franchise.”
The news comes after CD Projekt announced it would begin developing Witcher and Cyberpunk games simultaneously, while also purchasing The Molasses Flood to work on games in its universes. Its new North American studio will incorporate the Vancouver studio it already bought.
As part of the glut of announcements, we also learned that co-CEO Adam Kiciński would be leaving his role to apply to be Chairman of the company.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.