Executive Overview
CD Projekt Red, the celebrated Polish powerhouse behind critical and commercial juggernauts like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, has once again found itself restructuring one of its most heavily anticipated development teams. In a move that highlights the volatile nature of modern AAA game development, the studio has laid off nine employees working on Project Sirius—an upcoming multiplayer game set within the grim, monster-infested dark fantasy universe of The Witcher.
According to official confirmations provided to industry outlets, the layoffs are evenly split across the studio’s global footprint, impacting four team members based in Boston, Massachusetts, and five located in Poland. Alongside the departures, an additional nine workers have been funneled into internal recruitment pipelines, giving them an opportunity to audition for alternate roles across CD Projekt Red’s broader corporate ecosystem. Company representatives have defended the downsizing as a necessary administrative realignment, citing shifting resource demands as the project navigates a complex, multi-year developmental journey.
This latest round of workforce reductions shrinks the Project Sirius development team down to approximately 65 active personnel. While CD Projekt Red commands a massive global workforce exceeding 1,300 employees distributed across Warsaw, Boston, Canada, and various European hubs, Project Sirius has historically borne the brunt of corporate pivots, structural reorganizations, and creative overhauls.
The turbulence surrounding Project Sirius raises critical questions regarding the trajectory of CD Projekt Red’s ambitious multi-franchise expansion strategy. Once envisioned as a groundbreaking multiplayer pivot for The Witcher IP, the game has been forced to weather major philosophical shifts, strategic re-evaluations, and previous waves of layoffs. As the industry watches closely to see how the studio balances its flagship single-player ventures—most notably The Witcher 4—against its burgeoning multiplayer ambitions, the fate of Project Sirius remains a fascinating case study in adaptive game design and corporate resilience.
Detailed Chronology: The Rocky Road of Project Sirius
To fully understand the gravity of the recent layoffs, one must trace the timeline of Project Sirius from its inception to its current, highly scrutinized state. The origins of the project trace back to 2021, when CD Projekt made a decisive move to expand its development capabilities in North America by acquiring Boston-based indie developer The Molasses Flood, renowned for atmospheric survival titles like The Flame in the Flood.
By 2022, CD Projekt Red officially announced Project Sirius, framing it as an innovative take on The Witcher universe that would introduce multiplayer elements alongside a compelling narrative framework. The Molasses Flood was handed the reins, spearheading the creative direction from their Boston headquarters while integrating closely with CD Projekt Red’s European infrastructure.
However, the honeymoon phase for the newly acquired studio was short-lived. By May 2023, warning signs began to flash across CD Projekt’s investor briefings. The company announced that it was implementing a "new framework" for Project Sirius, effectively signaling a top-to-bottom creative reboot. This strategic pivot resulted in a staggering $7 million financial write-down and the immediate termination of 29 developers—21 in the United States and eight in Poland.
The 2023 restructuring severely impacted The Molasses Flood’s operational independence. Over the subsequent months, CD Projekt Red systematically absorbed the Boston studio, dissolving its distinct corporate identity and bringing it fully under the primary CD Projekt Red banner. Despite these sweeping internal disruptions, the team slowly rebuilt its numbers. By February 2026, corporate disclosures indicated that 71 developers were actively assigned to Project Sirius. That headcount steadily grew, reaching 83 team members by late April 2026.
Yet, stability in game development is rarely guaranteed. Just months after scaling up its workforce to meet production milestones, CD Projekt Red enacted the current wave of layoffs, dropping the headcount back to roughly 65. Amidst this backdrop of perpetual flux, the project has experienced high-profile leadership shifts. Most notably, veteran narrative designer Kwan Perng—celebrated for his acclaimed work on Bungie’s Destiny 2—was brought onboard in May as the new lead writer for Project Sirius, tasked with anchoring the game’s dark, eclectic storytelling amid structural uncertainty.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Where Project Sirius Fits in the CD Projekt Portfolio
To contextualize the scale of Project Sirius within CD Projekt Red’s overarching operations, one must analyze the studio’s global employment distribution and capital allocation. As of June 2026, CD Projekt Red employs over 1,300 professionals worldwide. However, human and financial resources are far from evenly distributed across the company’s active production slate.
The vast majority of the studio’s institutional muscle is currently dedicated to The Witcher 4 (often referred to by its codename, Project Polaris). According to recent quarterly disclosures, an imposing 513 developers are assigned to The Witcher 4, underscoring its status as the absolute priority for the company’s immediate commercial future. By comparison, Project Sirius operates as a satellite venture, occupying a much smaller tier of the corporate hierarchy.
| Metric / Milestone | Data Point | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Total Global Workforce | 1,300+ employees | Distributed across hubs in Warsaw, Boston, Canada, and Europe (June 2026 data). |
| The Witcher 4 Workforce | 513 developers | Represents the primary focus of CD Projekt Red’s current production pipeline. |
| Project Sirius Peak Headcount (2026) | 83 developers | Reached on April 30, 2026, following a steady post-2023 rebuild. |
| Project Sirius Current Headcount | ~65 developers | Reduced following the recent layoff of 9 employees and internal reassignment of 9 others. |
| 2023 Financial Write-Down | $7 million | Associated with the initial framework change and early restructuring of Project Sirius. |
The stark contrast between the workforce numbers for The Witcher 4 (513) and Project Sirius (~65) illustrates how CD Projekt Red approaches risk management. While flagship single-player franchises command maximum investment, experimental or multiplayer-adjacent spinoffs are subjected to agile, highly monitored budgeting. When production milestones slip or developmental scopes require recalibration, management routinely trims the fat to align overhead with the project’s current lifecycle needs.
Official Statements and Corporate Rationales
In corporate communications, layoffs are frequently sanitized through sterile public relations phrasing, yet CD Projekt Red’s official statements regarding the Project Sirius reductions offer explicit insight into their tactical reasoning.
When approached for comment by industry reporters, a CD Projekt Red corporate representative provided a clear, measured breakdown of the personnel changes:
"We adjusted the size of the Sirius team to reflect the project’s needs at this stage of development."
This framing suggests that the reductions are not necessarily indicative of a failing project or a looming cancellation, but rather a standard calibration associated with transitioning from one developmental phase—such as early concept or structural prototyping—to a more streamlined production pipeline.
Furthermore, the company emphasized its commitment to internal mobility, noting that nine additional employees were spared immediate termination by being invited to participate in internal recruitment processes. These workers have been offered opportunities to apply for open roles across other active CD Projekt Red initiatives, mirroring corporate strategies deployed during previous restructuring phases to retain institutional knowledge and mitigate the human cost of sudden downsizing.
Despite these assurances, industry analysts remain watchful. The closure and full absorption of The Molasses Flood as an independent entity, combined with successive waves of layoffs in 2023 and 2026, paint a picture of a project that has struggled to find a steady developmental equilibrium.
Future Outlook: What Lies Ahead for The Witcher Multiplayer Spinoff?
As the dust settles on the latest round of layoffs, the broader gaming community is left to ponder what the future holds for Project Sirius. Public details regarding the game remain remarkably scarce. Aside from the knowledge that it explores the dark fantasy lore of The Witcher through a multiplayer lens and has been steered primarily by the Boston-based development contingent, concrete gameplay details have been virtually nonexistent.
However, recent developments offer glimmers of cautious optimism. Reports from industry insiders indicate that despite its turbulent history, day-to-day production on Project Sirius has progressed "relatively well recently." The high-profile recruitment of narrative veteran Kwan Perng demonstrates that CD Projekt Red is heavily investing in the project’s storytelling depth, ensuring that even as a multiplayer or spin-off venture, the game will honor the rich, narrative-driven legacy established by its predecessors.
Perng himself expressed profound reverence for the assignment upon joining the studio in May:
"It will be some time before I can talk about the project, but in the meantime I’ve been immersing myself in the dark and eclectic universe of The Witcher," Perng shared via professional networking channels. "It’s humbling to get the opportunity to tell stories in this world and in the company of such talented developers."
For CD Projekt Red, the immediate future will be defined by execution. With The Witcher 4 consuming the lion’s share of creative energy and financial backing, Project Sirius must prove that a leaner, approximately 65-person team can successfully deliver a compelling multiplayer experience. If the studio can harness its newly restructured workforce and leverage fresh narrative leadership, Project Sirius may yet emerge from its developmental crucible as a triumphant evolution for The Witcher franchise. Until then, stakeholders, developers, and fans alike will continue to monitor the project with a mixture of hopeful anticipation and watchful pragmatism.
