Project Sirius: Layoffs Hit The Witcher Multiplayer Spin-off

Layoffs have struck the Project Sirius team, the multiplayer spin-off of The Witcher being developed in-house at CD Projekt Red. The news comes as the Polish studio manages multiple projects tied to its flagship franchise, including the Songs DLC. This accumulation of projects, combined with job cuts on a project that remains largely invisible to the public, raises a pointed question: Is Project Sirius shrinking before it even exists publicly?

A Multiplayer Project That Never Convinced Internally

Project Sirius was announced several years ago as CD Projekt Red's attempt to break out of its narrative single-player comfort zone. The pitch: a multiplayer Witcher experience, structurally different, targeting a potentially broader audience. On paper, the ambition was clear. In practice, the project has never delivered public gameplay, no demos, no concrete look at what it actually looks like.

Layoffs in a team whose exact size remains unknown can mean two things: either a technical restructuring following a design pivot, or a straightforward scaling back of the project's scope. Either way, it doesn't look like a studio accelerating. It looks like a project still searching for direction, or having lost it.

CD Projekt Red Facing the Bloated Portfolio Syndrome

The Warsaw studio is no longer the monolithic operation that poured all its resources into a single title. Since Cyberpunk 2077's release and chaotic aftermath, CD Projekt Red has spread itself thin across multiple fronts: The Witcher 4 in primary development, the Songs DLC anchored to the Witcher license, Project Sirius in parallel, and an internally reorganized structure split across several teams. It's a legitimate ambition for a studio of this size, but the Sirius layoffs remind us that managing multiple projects simultaneously demands an industrial discipline few studios master without breaking things.

Comparisons with other studios that tried expanding franchises into multiplayer territory are hardly reassuring. BioWare with Anthem (2019) or Rocksteady with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024) proved that a strong brand isn't enough to prop up a multiplayer project whose design foundations are shaky. Project Sirius isn't there yet—it doesn't even have an announced release date—but the signal from these layoffs deserves to be read clearly.

While Sirius wavers, the Songs DLC appears to command CD Projekt Red's editorial and marketing attention on the Witcher side. That makes sense: Songs builds on an existing foundation, proven mechanics, and an already-acquired audience. Its structural risk is lower than a multiplayer spin-off starting from scratch in a segment the studio has never tackled.

This priority hierarchy is probably sound for the studio's financial health, but it pushes Project Sirius to the margins. A multiplayer project with zero public visibility, hit by departures, with a safer competitive project in the spotlight: the conditions aren't aligned for Sirius to gain momentum in the coming months.

The Real Question: Does Project Sirius Still Exist as an Ambitious Project?

Layoffs don't automatically mean cancellation. But they signal that something has shifted in how CD Projekt Red is calibrating this project. If Sirius were on a clear trajectory, the cuts would at minimum come with a repositioning message. The absence of structured communication around these departures lets silence do the talking—and in the video game industry, silence is rarely good news for a multiplayer project that must build community before even existing.

CD Projekt Red has the resources to weather these turbulences. What's less certain is whether Project Sirius still has them.