CD Projekt Red has openly acknowledged the failures that led to the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Now, as the studio works on The Witcher 4 and the Cyberpunk sequel (Project Orion), it has fundamentally changed how it documents and shares technical knowledge. According to a recent panel at Digital Dragons, the lessons have been learned – and they won’t be repeated.
The Problem: Lost Knowledge and Sloppy Documentation
Speaking at a session titled “Old Docs Die Hard,” CDPR technical writers Jarosław Ruciński and Adrian Fulneczek detailed the studio’s past issues. During the development of The Witcher 3, technical documentation was often incomplete or not preserved. When work began on The Witcher Remake, the team had almost no documentation from the original 2007 game, causing significant delays.
For Cyberpunk 2077, the problem was different. The team generated over 8,000 documentation pages, but maintaining them became a low priority. When developing the Phantom Liberty expansion, documents were split between cloud storage and internal Confluence instances, leading to confusion and inefficiency. The result was a launch marred by bugs, missing features, and a damaged reputation.
The Solution: Documentation as a Development Gate
CDPR has now made documentation a mandatory part of every development gate. Fulneczek explained: “Part of the requirements to pass that gate is the documentation, which wasn’t the case before.” This means that before a feature or milestone is considered complete, all relevant technical documentation must be written, reviewed, and accessible.
Additionally, the studio has broken down knowledge silos. Ruciński stated that knowledge is no longer locked behind team permissions. If one team discovers a fix or a tool that works, other CDPR teams can immediately access and implement it, rather than solving the same problem again from scratch. This cross‑project sharing is a radical shift from the isolated workflows of the past.
What This Means for The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2
Both The Witcher 4 (codenamed Polaris) and the Cyberpunk sequel (Project Orion) are still years away, with no announced release dates. However, the new internal processes suggest that CDPR is prioritizing stability and polish over aggressive deadlines. As the studio said during the panel, these games will arrive “when they are ready, not when Keanu Reeves announces them” – a pointed reference to the hype machine that backfired for Cyberpunk 2077.
Fans can expect fewer bugs, better performance, and a more transparent development cycle. The documentation overhaul won’t guarantee a perfect launch, but it addresses one of the root causes of Cyberpunk‘s problems: chaotic internal communication and lost institutional knowledge.
Also, Read
- The Witcher 3 Free Quest Is Perfect For Fans Of The Original Book
- The Witcher 4 Gorgeous Free Rival Lands on PC, PS5 and Xbox, Packed With Content
- The Witcher Surprise New Game Announced, Play As A Ronin
The Bottom Line
CD Projekt Red has publicly admitted its mistakes and shown how it intends to fix them. The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 may take time, but the studio is determined to deliver experiences that live up to expectations from day one. For players, that’s the most promising news of all.