CD Projekt Red has openly acknowledged the turmoil behind Cyberpunk 2077’s troubled development and vowed to avoid those mistakes in its upcoming titles. The Polish studio’s candid revelations come as it overhauls its internal processes ahead of Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2.
Issues during Cyberpunk 2077 development
At the Digital Dragons conference, senior technical writer Adrian Fulnecek and lead technical writer Jarosław Rusiński gave a presentation titled ”Old Docs Die Hard,” which pulled no punches about the state of the game’s development. Fulnecek described the entire Cyberpunk 2077 process as ”chaos.”
These documentation problems trace back to CD Projekt Red’s early days. During the development of the first two Witcher games, the studio had minimal documentation practices. The small team relied heavily on oral knowledge transfer, with little foresight for long-term planning. When the studio later began working on the Witcher remake, they discovered most technical documents from that period were lost.
For Cyberpunk 2077, while there were over 8,000 pages of documentation, maintaining and updating this content became a low priority. Crucial knowledge remained siloed within individual teams and was rarely shared across the studio, contributing to duplicated efforts and inefficiencies.
CD Projekt Red’s new development workflow
The studio has introduced mandatory ”gates” between development stages. Teams cannot progress until the required documentation is complete and approved, enforcing a stricter discipline that was previously lacking.
Another key change is improved knowledge sharing. Now, if a Witcher team develops a solution to a technical challenge, the Cyberpunk team can access and adapt it-preventing duplicate work across parallel teams tackling the same problems.
Fulnecek summarized the new approach: ”The future looks very promising. We’ve learned our lesson.”
Current progress of Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 development
Witcher 4 officially entered full production at the end of 2024. As of February 2026, the project employs 499 developers-over half of CD Projekt Red’s total workforce of 933. Since February 2025, the studio has hired more than 220 new staff members, mostly dedicated to Witcher 4. The game is being built on Unreal Engine 5, as part of a strategic, long-term partnership with Epic Games.
Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2, internally known as Project Orion, remained in pre-production as of May 2025. Neither title has an official release date yet.
CD Projekt Red’s transparency about Cyberpunk 2077’s chaotic development provides a rare insight into the studio’s struggles and signals its focus on rebuilding trust and efficiency. The process discipline overhaul and emphasis on cross-team collaboration show promise for their highly anticipated new releases. The coming years will reveal whether these changes lead to smoother launches and more polished games.