CD Projekt Red has suggested that if it did have something to release this year, like oh I don’t know, a secret expansion for The Witcher 3, it probably wouldn’t favour a surprise release or ‘shadow drop’.
Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said this while answering a question during a CDPR financial earnings call yesterday. An investor asked: “When do you plan to run up marketing efforts for the new game content you’ve announced for this year? Should we expect a longer marketing campaign – several months or weeks – or is a shadow [drop] still a possibility?”
To which Nowakowski replied: “I’d like to say everything is a possibility. But having said that, our experience and our preference given the types of games we make is for longer-term marketing campaigns; we think they tend to work a little bit better than, say, a live drop at some conference or event. So I’d point in that direction.”
The reference to “new game content you’ve announced for this year” likely relates to a remark chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz made during the earnings call, mentioning “new content we’re planning to release”. CDPR has not widely announced any new game content, otherwise, for this year.
“We continue to believe that with strong back catalogue sales performance this year and the new content we’re planning to release, we have a fair chance of reaching [our incentive program target],” Nielubowicz said.
The incentive program mentioned is a key part of The Witcher 3 expansion rumour. I explored this CDPR incentive program in detail with a Polish analyst, but briefly, it’s a financial target set that will offer bonuses if reached. But the studio is currently under target and it will need something considerable to make up the shortfall. “After three out of four years, we are at 74 percent of the goal,” Nielubowicz said in the call. “527 million zloty (£107m) still remains to be earned this year to reach the target.”
The first question CDPR faced was whether the project Fool’s Theory was making will contribute to the company’s revenues this year. Fool’s Theory is the studio remaking The Witcher 1 in Unreal Engine 5, and helping on The Witcher 4, but it’s also the suspected developer of the new expansion. “In terms of the project from Fool’s Theory – as was said, we will come back with more news later this year,” Nielubowicz answered. “For now, we have nothing to share; we’re not sharing anything yet.”
In another question about making the incentive program target, Nielubowicz said “we need products to launch successfully”, but didn’t say what they were. And when asked if CDPR had more than one unannounced project to help reach the target, Nielubowicz added: “Unfortunately, I cannot comment on that, as there’s probably no good answer that would be definitive and sure.”
Someone else asked about the number of unannounced projects in development at the studio, and how many might be released in 2026. “In general, we have a wider number of unannounced projects,” Nielubowicz answered, “but from those that are at a more advanced stage and are being capitalised – as of December 31, 2025, as we discussed under the ‘expenditures on development projects in progress’ – we actually have four such projects, unannounced but already capitalised, out of which one was a non-gaming project while three were gaming projects.”
Then someone probed CDPR about the motivation behind releasing The Witcher 3 recently on Xbox Game Pass. This question was more direct. “Could this be related to the planned new content for existing games?” the investor asked.
Nowakowski answered this one. “I like that question, it’s very detailed,” he said. “But the truth is, the game has been out there for almost 11 years – 11 years in May this year – and for most of that time we’ve been selling the complete version, with two expansions, as you know. And I think we’ve just come to that moment in the lifecycle of the game where this was more attractive from the new players’ perspective. As we’ve mentioned, we want to bridge that generational gap; this is a more attractive offering, to allow them to familiarise themselves with The Witcher adventures before the upcoming release of The Witcher 4.”
Impressive evasive manoeuvring, but it begs the question of when CDPR might announce something, assuming it has something to announce. If CDPR wants a longer marketing campaign, a Witcher 3 anniversary release in May seems to be out of the question – it’s too close. But perhaps it might announce something then? If so, when would it launch – in the summer? Leave it too late in the year and the release window narrows.
Aside from the rumoured Witcher 3 expansion, the next game to come from CDPR will probably be The Witcher 4, which now has 499 developers working on it, the company said in the financial earnings report. But we’ve been told in the past not to expect The Witcher 4 before 2027 (at the earliest). We got a glimpse of The Witcher 4 last summer during Epic’s Unreal showcase event, and we’re due another look at the game at the same event this year.