Creating video game adaptations of previously existing IPs has proven to be hugely successful. Games like Marvel's Spider-Man, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the many Warhammer video games have shown that developers that give proper respect to the source material can create fantastic additions to those series. CD Projekt Red continues to do this with great success with the games in the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. These games are great on their own, but there is the added benefit of fitting into a world that fans of those series already know. This benefits everyone involved, with fans of the games getting into the source material and vice versa.
CD Projekt Red recently announced that it had several games in development. This included numerous games in the Witcher series and a new Cyberpunk 2077 game. In addition to these, CD Projekt Red announced that it had an entirely new intellectual property codenamed Hadar. The game is going to be developed internally by CD Projekt Red and is supposedly in its conceptual phase, so any new information about the game is likely a long way away. This was something that CD Projekt Red had to do eventually in order to stand out as a publisher, although it could prove to be a difficult task for them.
CD Projekt Red Has Little Experience With New IPs
The entirety of CD Projekt Red's game library is either a game in the Witcher series or Cyberpunk 2077. While there is a variety of different kinds of games within the Witcher series, CD Projekt Red has mostly stuck with this one series. This is likely because there is plenty of material to work with for the Witcher series with plenty of books and supplementary material. The same could be said about Cyberpunk 2077. Many editions of the Cyberpunk tabletop role-playing games by Mike Pondsmith have existed for years before Cyberpunk 2077 was made. While CD Projekt Red has shown that it can adapt source materials pretty well and create new stories out of them, it has not shown that it can create an entirely new world.
That is not to say that CD Projekt Red is incapable of creating a new kind of game. The Witcher series has lots of different genres throughout its games, such as an open-world RPG, a card game, a MOBA, and even a geolocation-based game like Pokemon GO. The issue here is that CD Projekt Red has pigeonholed themselves into being developers that are good at adapting other media into video games. Players can imagine what CD Projekt Red might do with other media put into video games but might have no idea what it can do when making their own IP. There is a level of uncertainty with CD Projekt Red with their ability to create a new world.
Bethesda Game Studios is in a similar situation to CD Projekt Red. While it is an accomplished publisher, it has not internally developed an original IP in around 25 years until the upcoming release of Starfield. Bethesda Game Studios has some heavy work to do in order to make a fully fleshed-out world that people are going to care about. However, Bethesda Game Studios' flagship series, The Elder Scrolls, is something that they created themselves. CD Projekt Red differs in this aspect due to them mostly working on one series since its creation. Even then, that series is not something that they had to create from the ground up.
CD Projekt Red Has To Get Fans On Board With Hadar
Another risk with anyone creating a new intellectual property is convincing people that this is something worthwhile. Many accomplished game developers and publishers have tried to push new IPs just for them to underperform in favor of their previous titles. Games like Anthem from Bioware or Babylon's Fall from Platinum are just a couple of attempts from established developers to push a new IP that did not work out in the end. CD Projekt Red has to be careful in making sure that their new IP is something that is going to get fans interested.
Both the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 had the added benefit of having supplementary material that enhanced the enjoyment of those games. Fans of the Witcher had the books to go back to and Cyberpunk 2077 players could go check out the tabletop games. The release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix also helped revive a lot of interest in the game and got a lot of new players. Extra material can go a long way in getting interest from new players as well as giving something for fans of the game to go back to. However, making these supplementary materials necessary to understand the story would not be advised, as it could be overwhelming for people trying to get into the series.
What CD Projekt Red has to do is show that Hadar is something that is able to stand on its own. It will without a doubt be compared to the Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 leading up to its release, so the game needs to be different enough from both of those. There has to be something different about project Hadar that sets itself apart from the others, whether that be a unique setting for CD Projekt Red or a new genre of gameplay. Both the Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 use RPG elements in an open world, so it might benefit Hadar if it tries to stray away from that kind of gameplay.
There are likely many developers within CD Projekt Red that are passionate about Hadar. It is no small task to create an entirely original IP and there is no doubt that some people there feel a personal connection to the world they are creating. A big risk is being taken by CD Projekt Red, and it would be a shame if the passion of many of these developers goes to waste due to the game not doing well. In any case, CD Projekt Red has to do all it can to prove that it is capable of handling an entirely original IP.