CD Projekt cuts nine Project Sirius developers amid strategy shift
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
CD Projekt has laid off nine staff working on Project Sirius, its multiplayer-focused Witcher game, and reassigned another nine as it changes its development strategy. The cuts raise fresh uncertainty around a project already restarted once, illustrating the difficulties of expanding The Witcher beyond the studio’s traditional single-player role-playing games.
Project Sirius is being developed by CD Projekt Red Boston, incorporating former Molasses Flood staff, and is intended to combine single-player and multiplayer modes for a broader audience. It was announced in 2022 with more than 60 developers involved, but was restarted in 2023 alongside 29 redundancies; although reports said progress had improved recently, the latest reductions follow CD Projekt’s growing slate of Witcher, Cyberpunk and new-IP projects.
- Nine Project Sirius employees were laid off.
- Another nine staff were reassigned within CD Projekt.
- The multiplayer Witcher game has faced repeated disruption.
New here? Start with this
CD Projekt is the Polish video game company behind The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Its best-known games are large, story-led role-playing games designed mainly for one person to play.
Project Sirius is a planned Witcher game that would add online multiplayer elements while retaining a single-player component. It is being made by CD Projekt Red Boston, a studio that includes staff from The Molasses Flood, a US developer acquired by CD Projekt.
The project has had a difficult development history, including an earlier restart and job losses. It matters because it is part of CD Projekt’s attempt to broaden one of its biggest game series while it is also developing several other Witcher, Cyberpunk and new original projects.
More coverage
Read the full article at the source →
Originally published by Polygon as “Team behind multiplayer Witcher game ‘Project Sirius’ hit by layoffs”.