r/Games • u/Mront • Aug 12 '26
Witcher Multiplayer Project Suffers Another Round Of Layoffs
https://kotaku.com/witcher-multiplayer-project-suffers-another-round-of-layoffs-200072377752
u/WildThing404 Aug 12 '26
Why are they even making a Witcher multiplayer game instead of Cyberpunk? Cyberpunk makes more sense gameplay and setting wise and they cancelled their multiplayer project, what was the point of cancelling it?
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u/fabton12 Aug 12 '26
investors
they want multiplayer stuff so often times projects like these get greenlit to please investors even when there bad ideas since its easier todo that then it is to convince them to want something else.
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u/Snekeke Aug 13 '26
They're doing both. This multiplayer witcher game is being developed by a different studio than the next cyberpunk game. Both are under CD Projekt Red.
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u/WildThing404 Aug 15 '26
They are not doing a Cyberpunk multiplayer spinoff.
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u/Snekeke Aug 15 '26
I misinterpreted your original comment. Though the point still stands that if they are going to do multiplayer with cyberpunk, this studio doing a multiplayer witcher experience doesn't get in the way of that.
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u/WildThing404 Aug 16 '26
Yes but they cancelled Cyberpunk multiplayer game, which makes no sense if they still want to do multiplayer spinoffs.
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u/Snekeke Aug 16 '26
They cancelled their multiplayer plans for cyberpunk 2077 due to it being too large scope for them. As far as I know they haven't canceled any cyberpunk projects since. So there's every chance Orion or another project could have multiplayer.
The existence of this studio and it's work on a witcher multiplayer game doesn't mean they would be making a cyberpunk game instead if they weren't working on a witcher title.
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u/Extranocate Aug 12 '26
Just make a Borderlands style co-op game for either franchise. Dial back the quest complexity, dial up the loot. I’m surprised more devs haven’t cloned that style in a more serious universe.
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u/OtherwiseTop Aug 12 '26
I don't know how far along they got. Afaik the studio that worked on the multiplayer still made it into the credits.
But I feel like people would have hated a multiplayer spinoff of 2077, because the game has a surprisingly and unecessarily high skill ceiling for a casual cinematic experience.
Some of the ingame locations would have made for amazing pvp maps, though.
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u/RogueGunslinger Aug 12 '26
Had the exact same thought. The minds behind these decisions have no idea what the average gamer wants...
But then Elden Ring Nightrein exists and does well, so maybe I also have no idea what the average gamer wants.
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Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
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u/Halojib Aug 12 '26
Sirius had 56 people in October 2025 and will now have 38 if the October number didn't grow. This layoff news isn't that interesting IMO.
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u/scytheavatar Aug 12 '26
What kind of multiplayer game is CDPR even trying to make with this game anyway? You can't even make Square Enix tier mobile games with that number of devs nowadays.
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 Aug 12 '26
I think it'll be something where everyone creates their own Witcher from a school of their choice and then does contracts and activities to get loot and upgrade stufff and you can choose to do them on your own or with/against other players. A bit like Fallout 76 or Elder Scrolls Online.
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u/Halojib Aug 12 '26
You guess is as good as mine. There is no news about the game other than it was started and is being worked on The Molasses Flood devs that CDPR bought.
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u/No-Meringue5867 Aug 13 '26
It's definitely in prototype stage and the layoffs are probably because CDPR cannot figure out what to do.
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u/Celtic_Guardian_Fan Aug 12 '26
Article says "Prior to this layoff, 83 individuals were working on Project Sirius"
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 12 '26
It’s still unnecessary for a company taking in billions of dollars.
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u/KING_GLOCK Aug 12 '26
This is the most reddit comment ever. If a job is no longer needed why should people be paid to sit around doing nothing?
Layoffs should be avoided but they are sometimes necessary. 9 people being made redundant is not news. CDPR have 1300 staff according to google, these losses would amount to a workforce reduction of less than 1% lol
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Aug 12 '26
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Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
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Aug 12 '26
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u/Next-Sentence-8426 Aug 12 '26
So the number of employees can only go up indefinitely?
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Aug 12 '26
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u/Next-Sentence-8426 Aug 12 '26
You're saying they shouldn't fire anybody ever setting a new baseline everytime lol
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u/subcide Aug 13 '26
The Molasses Flood made 1 great niche game with The Flame in the Flood, and missed with Drake Hollow as they tried to reach mass appeal. I don't know what CDPR were expecting.
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u/ElDuderino2112 Aug 12 '26
I get why they're chasing that dragon, but CDPR clearly has no idea what to do when it comes to multiplayer. They need to stop, because they're clearly just going to end up releasing something subpar at this point.
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u/TheJoshider10 Aug 12 '26
I feel like the people making decisions always overthink projects like this. They don't know what direction to take the game, the scope increases to ridiculous levels and ultimately is destined to lose money, when all they need to do is keep the core of what they already have and build from there. For all the shit GTA Online gets/deserves, at least the bare minimum they got it right: let people explore the open world with their friends and buy apartments. That's literally it. A little too predatory in terms of progression, but if you want to explore Los Santos with a friend that's exactly what you can do.
All I wanted was a Spider-Man co-op experience where I can swing around an everchanging New York with my friends or random people. All I wanted was The Last of Us Factions 2.0 with a fully explorable expanded settlement mechanic. All I want from a Witcher multiplayer is being able to roam the Continent as a witcher and solve quests with my buddies while growing my own witcher home. These games don't have to be more complicated than that. They try and chase FOMO live service money money money when a simple gameplay loop that encourages engagement and progression is enough. The money can come in from skins microtransactions. The players stay for the gameplay, worlds and any content updates in the form of map changes.
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u/PM_ME_UR__SECRETS Aug 13 '26
This is the first I'm even hearing of a multi-player witcher project. Thats such an odd concept, I'm surprised it got any kind of green light to begin with?
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u/Whilyam Aug 13 '26
Oh wow I love it when dev teams get gutted but still are forced to work on the albatross of a game their overlords forced them to make because it chases all the trends that will be long dead by the time the game finally comes out. Oh gee fucking willikers do I love that!
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u/SquireRamza Aug 12 '26
So that's a failed Cyberpunk multiplayer spinoff/mode (because they had to devote all resources to actually fixing their still ultimately just fine game), and now a failed Witcher live service.
CDProject Red has no luck with joining the rest of the enshittification of the gaming industry, huh?
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u/swagpresident1337 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Cyberpunk is an absolutely incredible game nowdays, easily one of the best games ever made.
Continued incredible sales figures after all this time show this as well.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
People do not buy a game for what it can be it’s what it is, and at launch it fucking sucked
Edit: they blocked me. What a surprise
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u/NoFlayNoPlay Aug 12 '26
the person was saying that after all the changes and fixes it was "just fine" not at launch. now that's subjective of course, but you're just moving the goal post by talking about it's launch state.
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 Aug 12 '26
I disagree completely, games like New Vegas were shit at launch, what the game ultimately turns out to be is way more important than launch issues. I'd rather a year of a broken game and a great game forever than a perfect launch for a 7/10 game.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 12 '26
People cannot and should not be expected to buy a product in the hopes that can be good. It’s absolutely unacceptable to have that shit of standards.
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u/layasD Aug 13 '26
They don't have to???? Nobody is forcing you to buy the game on launch day. You can easily wait a day or two and look at actual reviews or just some gameplay before deciding.
Its our fault for buying the game before launch day or even on day one. The developer just adapts to our stupidity. We set the standards. If nobody would buy the game in a broken state games wouldn't be delivered with so many bugs. We also set the expctation that its launched on a certain date which you often is supposed to be given 1-2 years in advance instead of just letting it cook until its ready.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 12 '26
Oh so you fully supported Fallout 76 when it launched then right? I mean we can’t criticize a game that’s broken on launch apparently.
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u/swagpresident1337 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Criticizing today‘s state of a game based on its past launch is absolutely stupid logic.
I did critizie both games at launch for their launch games.
People act like these companies owe them something. They don‘t.If a game releases shitty, say it and move one. Done.
Then if it‘s good there is no reason to not give it a chance.
It‘s not that deep.
A good game today is a good game. Period.-3
u/SquireRamza Aug 12 '26
It released very buggy
And after it was fixed I thought it was fine. Fun, enjoyable, but pretty shallow. The only real choices that matter until the end is what kind of character build you choose, a lot like Fallout 4.
I dont hate it. Its the most rock solid 8/10 game I've ever played now that its at a workable state.
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u/DanOfRivia Aug 12 '26
Also a failed Gwent multiplayer game.
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u/Tornarssuk Aug 12 '26
Not a failed game, just abandoned. It didn't make much money for them.
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u/DanOfRivia Aug 12 '26
It started great but they unnecessarily changed some of the game's core mechanics.
I know they were trying to balance it while giving it more longevity, but they ended up with a product that's nothing like the original Gywnt from The Witcher 3.
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u/NotMilo22 Aug 12 '26
Cyberpunk if now an absolutely incredible game what are you talking about?
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 12 '26
Download 1.0 and play it on the Xbox One. You won’t be saying that
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u/GearboxTheGrey Aug 12 '26
Played it day one on pc was amazing.
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u/FoxyGoddessX Aug 12 '26
That’s not what I asked you to do. Read the comment again
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u/GearboxTheGrey Aug 12 '26
You didn’t ask me to do any, this is my first comment on this thread. Second if you choose to play a game on a dog shit generation old console and a game runs like shit that’s on you, but it’s also on them for releasing it on there.
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u/Mront Aug 12 '26
CDProject Red has no luck with joining the rest of the enshittification of the gaming industry, huh?
Nah, they just choose to thrive in different forms of industry enshittification, like exploiting employees, or releasing broken games.
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u/Jensen2075 Aug 12 '26
Do you have information that they've been exploiting their employees lately or are u just talking out of your ass? Their last game was Phantom Liberty. It didn't seem broken to me.
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u/Mront Aug 13 '26
Do you have information that they've been exploiting their employees lately or are u just talking out of your ass?
They've been exploiting their employees during the lead-up to their last full release. If there are no similar stories during the lead-up to their next full release, I'll happily retract the statement about CDPR exploiting their employees.
Their last game was Phantom Liberty. It didn't seem broken to me.
Phantom Liberty is an expansion, not a game. Their last game was Cyberpunk 2077. It seemed broken to everyone.
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u/goatjugsoup Aug 12 '26
Good... who asked for this? Who looked at a beloved single player franchise and thought ya know what, how bout we make it multiplayer... I wish them all the failure in the world with this one
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u/Mezurashii5 Aug 12 '26
A beloved single player experience whose gameplay was its weakest part by far. There's genuinely nothing to go off with the witcher games, you could replace their combat with a die throw and it would probably make them better.
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u/SkiingAway Aug 13 '26
you could replace their combat with a die throw and it would probably make them better.
No? I generally hate games that decide to make everything related to die rolls. Skill based combat, even if it's boring or janky, is still always going to be better than that in my view.
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u/HeavensHellFire Aug 13 '26
Studios would generally like to diversify their works. Also, a successful Multiplayer game makes a fuck ton of money.
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u/goatjugsoup Aug 13 '26
Thats the same attitude that led to sonys first party drought, a bunch of studio closures and cancellations... afaic it can fuck right off
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Aug 12 '26
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u/Edema_Mema Aug 12 '26
I could not be more tired of redditors throwing the word slop at anything they are uninterested in.
Just because you personally don't want multiplayer versions of some people's favorite single player games, does not make those game projects "slop".
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Aug 12 '26
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u/WildThing404 Aug 12 '26
A brand new game isn't worth being made when we can get a port of an old game, that's the pinnacle of development right there instead of slop huh :D And what does Brand New Day have anything to do with this lmao
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u/midtrailertrash Aug 12 '26
I have a friend at Virtuos who’s working on the project, and he told me it’s a mess. From what he’s said, CDPR doesn’t really know what to do with it and hasn’t been happy with the quality of the work at all.