Video Game Studio Behind Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 Lays Off 100 Employees

CD Projekt Red, developer behind the Witcher franchise and Cyberpunk 2077, is laying off 100 employees.

The Polish development studio announced the wave of layoffs to the public Wednesday morning in a post on their website. The 100 employees account for about nine percent of its staff.

“There’s no easy way to say this, but today we are overstaffed,” CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński wrote. 

“We have talented people on board who are finishing their tasks and — based on current and expected project needs — we already know we don’t have other opportunities for them in the next year.”

Some of the employees won’t be terminated immediately, the post said, and some won’t be let go until the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year.

CD Projekt announced the layoffs in advance to give team members time to transition out of their current roles, the developer said. The company will also offer “a comprehensive severance package,” according to the post.

The layoffs come as CD Projekt ramps up production on several new titles slated for release in the next few years. These include a brand new trilogy set in the Witcher series, a Witcher 1 remake, an unspecified game set in the Cyberpunk universe, and an as-yet-unknown new IP.

“Those of you familiar with our strategy might remember that we have a lot going on at CD PROJEKT RED,” Kiciński wrote. “Part of that strategy is an ongoing process of several deep transformations within the studio which we consider key to making quality games, on time and without crunch. After reshaping our development process and incorporating Agile methodologies, we’re now focusing on refining the shape of our teams.”

CD Projekt is finishing development of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, due to release on September 26. The expansion features a brand new questline starring Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves. It is the first substantial addition to Cyberpunk 2077 nearly three years after the game’s disastrous launch on last gen consoles and PC.

This is the third round of layoffs this year at the developer. In May, the developer told Kotaku that it laid off 29 staffers in the US and Poland. Two weeks after that, the developer announced it would let go of a further 30 team members.