CD Projekt Red Scales Back: Understanding the Latest Layoffs at Project Sirius

The gaming industry continues to navigate a turbulent period of restructuring, with CD Projekt Red (CDPR) serving as the latest major studio to recalibrate its workforce. As of August 2026, the Polish gaming giant has confirmed a new wave of personnel reductions impacting Project Sirius, the ambitious multiplayer spin-off set within the Witcher universe. This development highlights the ongoing volatility within the AAA development space and raises questions regarding the studio’s long-term production pipeline.

The Core Facts: A Shift in Development Strategy

CD Projekt Red has officially confirmed that 18 developers previously attached to Project Sirius have been impacted by recent organizational changes. Of this group, nine individuals have been made redundant, while an additional nine have been invited to apply for internal redeployment opportunities within the company.

The studio has characterized these cuts as a necessary alignment of resources. In an official statement provided to media outlets, a spokesperson for CDPR explained: "We adjusted the size of the Sirius team to reflect the project’s needs at this stage of development."

The impact is geographically distributed, affecting both the studio’s primary operations in Warsaw and its North American arm. Specifically, four staff members in Boston and five in Warsaw have been let go. The remaining nine individuals are now entering a period of internal recruitment, hoping to pivot to other active CD Projekt Red projects. This maneuver underscores a common industry trend: rather than abandoning projects entirely, major publishers are increasingly choosing to "right-size" development teams as titles move between pre-production, vertical slice, and full-scale development phases.

A Chronology of Instability: The Path to 2026

To understand the current state of Project Sirius, one must look back at the project’s complex history since its inception.

The Inception (2021–2022)

The foundation for Project Sirius was laid when CD Projekt Red acquired The Molasses Flood, a boutique studio known for The Flame in the Flood. The acquisition, finalized in 2021, was intended to bolster CDPR’s capacity for smaller-scale, innovative titles. In October 2022, the studio officially pulled back the curtain on Project Sirius, describing it as an innovative take on the Witcher franchise that would feature both single-player and co-operative multiplayer elements.

The 2023 Rescoping

The project’s first major hurdle arrived in 2023. Following a period of evaluation, CDPR announced a formal "rescoping" of Project Sirius. This decision was accompanied by a significant round of layoffs at The Molasses Flood, affecting 29 staff members. At the time, management cited a need to rethink the project’s scope and direction, suggesting that the initial vision had become unsustainable or misaligned with the company’s broader strategic goals.

Full Integration and Continued Challenges (2025–2026)

By April 2025, The Molasses Flood was fully absorbed into the CD Projekt Red corporate structure, losing much of its independent identity as it became a cog in the larger CDPR machine. However, the integration did not immediately stabilize the project. The latest round of layoffs in August 2026 represents the second major personnel reduction for this specific project in three years, indicating that the challenges in defining the game’s identity and scope have persisted despite the structural changes.

Supporting Data: The Shrinking Workforce

The scale of these layoffs provides a sobering look at the project’s current trajectory. As of April 30, 2026, reports indicated that approximately 83 people were actively working on Project Sirius. With the recent departure of nine staff and the potential displacement of nine others, the team size has effectively dropped from 83 to approximately 65—a reduction of nearly 28% in total personnel.

This contraction is not an isolated event within the broader industry. On the same day that CDPR’s news broke, Supermassive Games—the studio behind Until Dawn—announced its own third round of layoffs, potentially impacting up to 75 workers. These concurrent announcements paint a grim picture of a industry that is currently purging "bloat" in a post-pandemic economic environment characterized by rising development costs, longer production cycles, and increased pressure from shareholders to deliver higher profit margins.

Official Responses and Corporate Rationale

CD Projekt Red’s official stance emphasizes efficiency over expansion. By stating that the changes were made to "reflect the project’s needs at this stage of development," the company is signaling to investors that it is actively managing its "burn rate."

Historically, CDPR has been known for its long, iterative development cycles. However, following the high-profile launch struggles of Cyberpunk 2077 and the subsequent shift in management philosophy, the studio has become much more aggressive about cutting costs when projects fail to meet internal milestones. The move to invite nine developers to apply for other roles is a strategic attempt to retain institutional knowledge while still reducing the headcount on Sirius. It is a "soft" layoff strategy that preserves the company’s reputation as an employer while still achieving the desired reduction in payroll overhead.

Implications for the Future of ‘The Witcher’

What does this mean for the future of the Witcher franchise?

The Risk of Development Hell

The recurring layoffs suggest that Project Sirius is struggling with a "development identity crisis." When a project undergoes multiple rounds of layoffs and multiple rescopings, the risk of "development hell" increases exponentially. The team’s inability to settle into a stable production phase suggests that the vision for the game is still being debated at the highest levels of the studio.

Impact on Studio Culture

While internal redeployment is a positive alternative to termination, the constant cycle of layoffs can have a deleterious effect on the morale of the remaining staff. In the high-pressure world of AAA development, job security is a primary driver of creative output. A team that is constantly looking over its shoulder, waiting for the next round of restructuring, is less likely to take the creative risks necessary to make a game truly stand out.

The Broader CDPR Pipeline

It is important to remember that Project Sirius is only one part of a much larger, multi-project roadmap. CDPR is currently managing Project Polaris (the next core Witcher game), a new IP (Project Hadar), and various support efforts for the Cyberpunk franchise. The company is effectively trying to transition from a single-hit studio to a multi-project juggernaut. The volatility at Sirius may simply be the growing pains of this transition, but it remains a significant risk factor for the company’s stock price and long-term release schedule.

Conclusion

The latest news from CD Projekt Red is a microcosm of the current gaming industry. As development costs skyrocket and the market becomes increasingly saturated with high-quality titles, studios are being forced to make difficult decisions about their workforce and project scopes.

For the developers at Project Sirius, these layoffs represent a period of profound uncertainty. For CD Projekt Red, it is a calculated effort to optimize a project that has proven more difficult to realize than originally anticipated. Whether these cuts will lead to a more focused, successful game or serve as a harbinger of further delays remains to be seen. As the industry watches, the success of Project Sirius will likely depend not just on the talent of the developers who remain, but on the ability of the studio’s leadership to finally define a clear, sustainable vision for the franchise’s multiplayer future.