Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Will Enter Pre-Production Soon; The Witcher 4 Won’t Release Before 2027

Today Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher developer CD Projekt revealed its earnings for the fiscal year 2024, defining them “really strong.”

The developer announced that its sales for the fiscal year were 985 million PLN, down 20% year-on-year, while net profit was just south of 470 million PLN, down 2% year-on-year.

Of course, the drop is to be expected, as the comparison is against the year in which the developer released the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion. Considering that, ther results were indeed strong.

We then heard an overview of the current state of production of the studio’s games.

Regarding project “Sirius” (a multiplayer game set in the universe of The Witcher), CD Projekt has merged its semi-recently acquired studio The Molasses Flood into CD Projekt Red Inc. “to ensure better alignment in the scope and direction of the project.”

This caused changes in the project’s leadership, but “the project itself is proceeding” and is in the pre-production phase.

Moving on to the remake of The Witcher, which is in the concept phase, CD Projekt has decided to temporarily integrate its development with ongoing work on The Witcher 4 “due to production process dependencies related to asset and technologies.”

As a result of that, a small part of the team at Fool’s Theory is currently supporting the team working on The Witcher 4. The goal is to have the necessary assets, tools, and pipelines ready for more efficient development of the remake.

Another undisclosed project is being carried out in collaboration with Fool’s Theory.

The team working on Project “Orion” (the sequel of Cyberpunk 2077) is “heading toward the end of the concept phase.” The game will be entering the pre-production phase in the coming weeks.

The vision for Project “Hadar” (the studio’s new IP) has progressed during the last year and has become more detailed. Internal assumptions and ideas have been “forged into main pillars” that guide the project forward.

This year, the team is focusing on further development of the IP and working on the game’s story while prototyping some gameplay solutions specific to the title. This means an increased workload, so the company is hiring for new positions related to this project.

Below, you can check out the current allocation of CD Projekt’s workforce compared to October 2024. The total number of developers has increased to over 700, with Orion getting the biggest increase. It’s also the company’s main recruitment focus, and the plan is to double its team by the end of 2025.

We then hear the announcement that the studio entered a partnership with Scopely to develop a game set in one of CD Projekt’s IPs. No information was provided on which IP that is. As a matter of fact, no further details of any kind about the project were shared.

During the Q&A session, we heard further information about CD Projekt’s situation and plans.

Speaking of The Witcher 4, we hear that it won’t be launched before December 31, 2026. The changes to Project Sirius won’t influence the release of The Witcher 4.

The developers see “nothing that would prove the goal [of releasing the whole trilogy in a 6 year window] to be impossible” as the work with Unreal Engine 5 is is going as planned and CD Projekt has been able to straighten out any hiccups it has found, at times with the support of Epic Games.

Asked about generative AI, the company’s executives mentioned that they have a team investigating the use of AI tools in future products, including the development of proprietary AI models. There are several research projects underway, however, they’re not necessarily focusing on generative AI, which is “quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership and many other aspects.”

When it comes to the implementation of generative AI in its games, CD Project has nothing happening at the moment. Should the legal implications change, they might look at it.

We also learn that CD Projekt believes that subscription services can work well for back-catalog titles if it makes sense business-wise and timing-wise, but it requires careful consideration. It may be considered for older games, but the company is “not fans” of including games in subscription services of any kind at launch.

Below, you can check out a video in which CFO Piotr Nielubowicz summarizes the financial results.

Other gaming companies have also already announced their financial results for the latest quarter, including Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Sega, Bandai Namco, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Marvelous Entertainment, Koei Tecmo, Capcom, Microsoft, Konami, and Ubisoft.