CD Projekt RED confirms layoffs have hit The Witcher spin-off team
Codenamed Sirius, this is the spin-off title that has been in development since at least 2022, and was originally slated to be a multiplayer entry.
CD Projekt RED currently has several major projects in development, including a new The Witcher trilogy, the next Cyberpunk installment, a remake, an expansion, and a mystery spin-off. Today, the company revealed that a layoff wave had hit that mystery project.
Codenamed Sirius, this is the spin-off title that has been in development since at least 2022. The development was not being headed by the main studios that are handling the mainline Witcher or Cyberpunk entries. Instead, the team that CD Projekt acquired in 2021, The Molasses Flood, was confirmed to be developing the title since 2022.
Project Sirius was said to have at 83 staff working on it, but the latest cuts have reduced it to 65. According to a statement from the company provided to Kotaku, this included four layoffs at CD Projekt RED's Boston office and five from Warsaw. Nine more staff seemingly have the opportunity to apply for other projects in the company.
"We adjusted the size of the Sirius team to reflect the project’s needs at this stage of development," the statement had added. A similar layoff wave hit this development team back in 2023 as well.
While not much details have been released about this mystery project, it was first announced as a fully multiplayer The Witcher experience. Despite the multiplayer origins, reports over the years have said that the project has been rebooted since then, so it's unclear what sort of state it is in now. Earlier this year, a new lead writer, Kwan Perng from Destiny 2 fame, joined the team as well.
The Witcher fans will have to wait and see if this project ever sees an official reveal. Until then, don't forget that a new The Witcher 3 expansion is incoming soon, and after that, a completely new trilogy is planned for launch featuring Ciri.