CD Projekt RED is packing up its Massachusetts operation in Waltham and heading a few miles east, trading up to a larger Watertown office that will include motion‑capture facilities. The shift replaces an earlier Waltham expansion plan that was tied to a 2025 state tax incentive and marks a notable change in where the studio plans to build out its production muscle north of Boston. Local real‑estate and studio operators say the Watertown site offers larger floorplates and more room for specialized production infrastructure than denser downtown locations.
According to Boston Business Journal, the company chose to open a bigger space in Watertown and intends to move its Massachusetts operations out of Waltham entirely. The outlet reports that the new office will include motion‑capture capabilities to support in‑house animation and performance capture, a sign the studio wants more control over how its characters move and act on screen.
Per Mass.gov, the state’s Economic Assistance Coordinating Council certified CD PROJEKT RED for EDIP incentives in 2025 tied to a Waltham expansion. That filing said the company planned to lease about 9,147 square feet, invest roughly $4.5 million to fit out the space and create about 141 jobs over three years, with an anticipated average salary north of $170,000. Moving those plans to Watertown reshapes how those incentive‑linked commitments might ultimately be met in Massachusetts.
Why Watertown?
Watertown has quietly turned into a magnet for big lab and office tenants, with multiple Flagship‑founded companies signing on to the 99 Coolidge Ave redevelopment and helping build a cluster of lab‑ready space in town. Local coverage has highlighted that concentration and the building’s large, flexible floorplates, as reported in four Flagship biotechs ditch Boston. That kind of ready‑to‑customize, production‑friendly space helps explain why a studio that needs room for mocap stages and high‑end tech would look to Watertown instead of squeezing into a tighter downtown footprint.
Motion capture and hiring
CD PROJEKT RED currently lists a Boston location on its corporate site and recently devoted an AnsweRED podcast episode to motion capture, walking listeners through mocap workflows and staging. That episode was released in June 2026 and dovetails with a string of Boston‑based job listings on the company’s recruiting site, including a senior gameplay animator role that references the Boston hub and mocap experience. Together, the podcast focus and the job postings point to the studio building up motion‑capture and animation capacity in Massachusetts rather than outsourcing those functions elsewhere.
Neither the initial reporting nor the state filings included a specific timeline or street address for the new Watertown office, so details on build‑out and opening day are still thin in public documents. Future company updates, local permitting records and lease notices are expected to fill in when CD PROJEKT RED’s Watertown studio officially goes live.
