It’s been a very big day for CD Projekt, which announced that a full sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 (opens in new tab) and a whole new Witcher trilogy (opens in new tab) are happening. But that’s apparently not enough to keep the studio’s hands full, because there’s also something entirely new happening called Hadar.
“Hadar is a codename for a third, entirely distinct IP, created from scratch within CDPR,” CD Projekt Red tweeted. “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.”
Hadar is 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. pic.twitter.com/1LdoXSTnivOctober 4, 2022
CD Projekt said that conceptual work on Hadar began in 2021, and that at this point it is working “on the foundations of the world—laying the setting for a third separate product in the future.”
“I am excited to announce that CD Projekt Red has begun creative exploration on a third, entirely distinct IP, codenamed Hadar,” CD Projekt senior vice president of business development MichaÅ‚ Nowakowski said (opens in new tab).” We had started thinking about it a few years ago. Early stage conceptual works 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 we are not making a game just yet. We are working on the foundation of this new setting.”
Despite being founded almost 30 years ago, CD Projekt has only developed games based on two properties, both of them licensed: The Witcher, a series of fantasy short stories and novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and Cyberpunk, a tabletop RPG created by Mike Pondsmith. Both have been huge successes, turning CD Projekt into one of the biggest game-makers in the world, but creating a wholly original setting for a new game falls well outside CD Projekt’s established expertise. Regardless of what it ultimately turns out to be, this will be something genuinely new for the studio.
Hada (opens in new tab)r, by the way, is the proper name for Beta Centauri, a triple star system in the constellation Centaurus, but that doesn’t necessarily point toward a sci-fi experience for CD Projekt’s next game. The other projects the studio announced today, including the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and new Witcher games, are also named after stars: Orion, Polaris, Canis Majoris, and Sirius.
CD PROJEKT’s codenames one-pager. 📄 pic.twitter.com/ztQh6mAJqtOctober 4, 2022
