There are parts of me that can rationalize certain ways of thinking within the games industry, even if I don’t understand them from an actual functional level. Take, for example, what Alexx spoke about this week with all the PVP/PVE/PVEVPVEVPVEVPVE shooters that look like the most boring piles of utter rubbish but are chasing a trend that will somewhat die out by the time they release in 2028. One fairly current trend in gaming that I fail to understand, and that is still en vogue, is firing a significant percentage of staff. Something that CD Projekt RED did to about 9% of its staff two years ago.

While the release of The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 are far off, it seems that, according to the latest earnings call, that is being corrected in an act that I’m going to call “bloody obvious.” If you’re not boring (like me), then you’ll be glad to know that I’ll summarize the most important part of the earnings call, but for the most part, it is the usual money people talking money and projections. Basically, what ruined the release of Cyberpunk 2077, in my opinion.

CD Projekt RED’s co-CEO and member of the board, Michał Nowakowski, said to investors in the call, “Our recruitment efforts have significantly sped up over the last three months, and as a result, the total number of talented developers working across our projects has grown by 10% reaching almost 800 people. This growth was primarily driven by our two largest development teams.

The Witcher 4 team grew to over 440 developers, while the Cyberpunk 2 project – which transitioned into pre-production recently in Q2, as you may remember – added 20 new team members. We anticipate further gradual growth in our total developer headcount by the end of the year, particularly for the teams working on projects in the most advanced stages of production.” To quell anyone getting excited, don’t expect to see either game mentioned as part of the 2026 game release window.

It was actually mentioned in the call, but the recent tech demo shown off during Unreal’s showcase is just that, a tech demo. It was a showcase of not only what the studio could do but also the Unreal 5 engine. With the team working on The Witcher 4, particularly growing from 422 to 444 between late April and late July, while Cyberpunk 2 went from 96 to 116 people.

For reference, the team that worked on The Witcher 3 was around 240 with a budget of $81 million, back in 2015, according to PC Gamer. With the same source later claiming some 400-odd people worked on Cyberpunk 2077 near the end of its initial development cycle. Several further years on and bigger development requirements later, 444 people to work on The Witcher 4 seems like it would be the baseline that CD Projekt RED would be aiming for with a project of its size. With The Witcher spin-off, Sirius, also stated to have only grown from 48 to 51 people in that three-month period.

It is good to see the team is growing, the development is moving forward, and the overall attitude has swung back in this direction. However, it is nonetheless odd to have reduced the development team by several percentage points, then to return and further increase by a single percentage point. The lay-offs two years ago were about 9% of staff, with Nowakowski stating clearly, “the total number of talented developers working across our projects has grown by 10%.“ Great, but was it an individual quality thing, or was it the usual “we’re making profits, but we could be making more if we fired these people?” I hate money people.

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