CD Projekt shifts The Witcher legacy IP to outsourced studios as 513 devs lock into Witcher 4 production
Summary
CD Projekt's internal team on The Witcher 4 grew to 513 developers as of April 2026.
Witcher IP revenue rose 36% YoY to PLN 44.7M in Q1 2026 on 65M+ cumulative Witcher 3 sales.
The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, outsourced to Fool's Theory, delays to 2027 as a narrative bridge to Witcher 4.
"First and foremost, we really want to deliver a great experience to fans; a really cool expansion that's gonna make people happy to come back to The Witcher 3 setting"
01
676 internal devs split across two flagships, leaving legacy to external partners
513 developers on The Witcher 4, up from 499 in February 2026.
163 developers on Cyberpunk 2, up from 149 in February 2026.
Project Sirius and Project Hadar rank third and fourth in staff allocation.
Zero internal headcount is diverted to Songs of the Past; Fool's Theory leads that build.
02
Witcher 3 still drives meaningful revenue eleven years post-launch
Q1 2026 total revenue: PLN 191M ($52.5M), up 6% YoY.
Witcher IP revenue: PLN 44.7M ($12.2M), up 36% YoY.
The Witcher 3 crossed 65 million cumulative sales.
Songs of the Past keeps the franchise commercially visible without taxing core teams.
03
New Witcher trilogy drops the expansion model for a front-loaded release cadence
Nowakowski confirmed the new trilogy will "most likely not release expansions."
Plan: three full Witcher titles over six years instead of extended post-launch support.
Songs of the Past is an indirect "prologue" to The Witcher 4, not a template for the new trilogy.
Songs of the Past delayed from 2026 to 2027 "to achieve the best possible result from the consumer standpoint."
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