CD Projekt Says The Witcher 4 Will Be Made "Predominantly Using People," Not AI
CD Projekt, the Polish studio behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, has told investors that artificial intelligence is "definitely becoming a thing in games development" — but that its own games will still be made "predominantly using people" (GameSpot).
The comments came from joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski during the company's latest earnings briefing. Nowakowski, who shares the top job with Adam Badowski — the two took over as co-CEOs at the start of 2024 — framed AI as "a tool like many others" that may grow more useful over time, not as a replacement for human developers. He said CD Projekt has no plans to let AI build complete games on its own.
The reasoning is partly ethical, partly legal. Nowakowski said the studio makes "very complex games" and that handing the work to AI "would not be the right or ethical path to follow." He also pointed to unresolved questions around intellectual property — generative AI, which produces text, images, or code from learned patterns, is "quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership," according to a separate CD Projekt statement reported by PC Gamer in March 2025. The studio has previously stated that The Witcher 4 and "any projects in the near future" will not use generative AI (PC Gamer).
For fans, that means the next major Witcher title — slated for release in 2028 and the opening chapter of a planned new trilogy — is being built the traditional way: by people, on deadlines, making thousands of creative decisions. CD Projekt is also developing Cyberpunk 2 (codenamed Orion) and a multiplayer Witcher game, both still in earlier stages.
Nowakowski was careful not to set rules for the wider industry. Every studio, or at least its management, will decide for itself how to use or avoid AI, he said — and he was "not the person to make statements for the whole industry."
The comments arrived alongside CD Projekt's latest financial results. The company reported consolidated sales revenues of 435 million PLN for the first half of 2026, a 23% increase over the same period the year before, with net earnings of 249 million PLN and a net profitability rate of 57.2% (CD Projekt). The figures, published on 2 September 2026, cover a period with no new game launches — revenue is still being driven by the studio's existing catalogue.
That catalogue has legs. The Group's full-year 2024 revenue reached nearly 1 billion PLN (about 985 million), which was roughly 80% of the previous year's total — a year boosted by the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt described that 2024 net profit as its third-best ever, despite no new releases.
The studio is now ramping up production on The Witcher 4, its most high-profile upcoming title and the project most closely associated with the company's identity. Nowakowski's remarks draw a line that matters to both developers and players wondering where AI fits into the games they play — and the answer, for now, is that it does not fit on the creative side at CD Projekt.
