Image source: CD Projekt Red
It’s been six long years since The Witcher fans last enjoyed new video game content, but it seems like there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel. In a recent earnings call, CD Projekt RED confirmed a significant expansion in its workforce dedicated to the upcoming mainline game in The Witcher series, codenamed Polaris.
Adam Kiciński, the CEO of CDPR, provided insights into the scale of the development teams working on their active projects. “The [Polaris] team is steadily growing, having reached almost 330 developers at the end of last month,” Kiciński said during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference. He further projected an increase in the team size, anticipating it to exceed 400 by mid-next year.
This expansion establishes the Polaris team as the largest development unit within CD Projekt, surpassing the team dedicated to Cyberpunk, which had about 300 members as of the end of July. As of the end of October, approximately 220 developers were engaged in various Cyberpunk projects, which include the base game, its Phantom Liberty expansion, and the upcoming Ultimate Edition.
Kiciński also highlighted the overall workforce strength across CD Projekt Red and The Molasses Flood, an American studio acquired in 2021. Currently, nearly 700 developers are employed across these studios. The Molasses Flood is known for its work on Flame in the Flood and is presently involved in developing a Witcher spin-off game, codenamed Project Sirius.
The update also touched upon the recent success of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion. Following its release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on September 26, the expansion sold three million copies in its first week. Within the first two months, sales have surpassed 4.3 million, underscoring the sustained popularity of CD Projekt’s titles.
In other recent The Witcher news, Netflix is set to release an animated film that features actor Doug Cockle, the iconic voice of Geralt from video game series. The Witcher 3 is also soon receiving a free update that will include mod tools, which are expected to see an explosion of community-made content.
