CD Projekt Red Keeps Raiding Kingdom Come's Talent Pool

Zdeněk Glatz spent years as a senior designer and writer on Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Now he's working on open worlds at CD Projekt Red. He announced the move on LinkedIn, sharing an image that reads "I'm happy to share that I've joined CD Projekt Red" alongside his new title: senior open world designer.

Glatz isn't the first Warhorse Studios veteran to make this exact jump. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 designer Karel Kolmann moved to CDPR previously, and the studio has been on a broader hiring spree that's pulled in talent from across the RPG space. An ex-Baldur's Gate 3 developer joined in December, and a former Mass Effect lead came aboard as AI director in February. CDPR has added over 220 new developers in roughly the past year.

At some point, a pattern stops being coincidence and starts being strategy. CDPR is building what looks like an RPG super-team, and they're clearly willing to shop at Warhorse's counter more than once. With both The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 in active development, the appetite for experienced open world designers makes obvious sense. Glatz's LinkedIn profile doesn't specify which project he's been assigned to, but senior open world designer slots neatly into either of those two flagships.

What It Means for Warhorse

The question Reddit is already asking is whether this steady drain of talent spells trouble for whatever Warhorse does next. I don't think it's that simple. Developers move between studios constantly, and CDPR is far from the only company hiring aggressively right now. But losing multiple senior-level people to the same competitor does concentrate the impact in a way that random industry churn doesn't.

Warhorse isn't sitting idle, either. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's lead designer Prokop Jirsa recently became one of the studio's two creative directors, and he's been vocal about the design philosophy that makes their games distinctive. In a recent interview, Jirsa talked about how the systems-driven nature of Kingdom Come convinced the team to push even further with the sequel, adding NPC theft mechanics specifically because players believed the world was more alive than it actually was. That kind of institutional knowledge doesn't walk out the door with any single hire.

Studio co-founder Daniel Vávra has also stepped down from his position to focus on bringing Kingdom Come to film or television, which signals Warhorse is thinking about the franchise's future beyond games. Whether that transition leaves the development side weaker or just differently focused is hard to say from the outside.

What I can say is that CDPR is assembling a roster that should make anyone paying attention to The Witcher 4 or Cyberpunk 2 sit up a little straighter. Pulling senior open world talent from one of the few studios that rivals their own commitment to immersive RPG design isn't just hiring; it's targeted recruitment. Warhorse built something special with Kingdom Come, and CDPR clearly wants the people who know how that sausage gets made.

Glatz's move brings the known Warhorse-to-CDPR pipeline to at least two confirmed hires, with the broader headcount expansion suggesting there may be others who haven't made public announcements. CDPR's next investor call or development update will likely shed more light on how all these new hires are being distributed across their growing slate of projects.