December 4, 2024, 9:55 am | Read time: 11 minutes
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of the most famous and successful video games of all time, was released in 2015. The story of the protagonist, the titular witcher Geralt, is actually told to its conclusion with the DLC “Blood and Wine.” Nevertheless, CD Projekt is working on a sequel. TECHBOOK collects all the rumors and information about the project in this article.
CD Projekt Red has celebrated a number of successes with the Witcher series. The company was so proud of the second installment that it was presented to the then US President Obama during his visit to Poland. The third installment even went one better. Praised by critics and players alike, the game is now regarded as one of the best in its genre.
The studio has actually sent its protagonist, Geralt of Riva, into his well-deserved retirement. The DLC Blood and Wine even gives him his own vineyard, where he can retire for his quiet days, because, as we all know, life in Beauclair is not difficult. The franchise never really went quiet, thanks in no small part to the Netflix series and the next-gen update. However, a proper sequel was ruled out for a long time. Until CD Projekt Red officially announced a new Witcher game in March 2022. What we know about The Witcher 4 so far.
Overview
All information about “The Witcher 4” at a glance
- CD Projekt has not yet officially revealed a name for the game. In communications, however, the project is called Polaris.
- The Witcher 4 has been in full production since fall 2024. Experts anticipate a release in 2026, although a launch at the end of 2025 is also theoretically possible.
- According to CD Projekt, the mistakes that were made with the release of Cyberpunk 2077, for example, are to be avoided at all costs.
- It is not yet clear who the new main character will be. What is certain is that Geralt of Riva will remain retired and, at most, make a guest appearance. The most likely candidate to fill his shoes is Ciri, who could already be controlled temporarily in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
- Although the developers want to take their cue from the successful predecessors, they want to create new gameplay. The new Unreal 5 engine will help with this, among other things.
- The Witcher 4 could cost around 60 euros at launch.
This could be the name of “The Witcher 4”
The exact title of the project is not yet known. The name The Witcher 4 is being used in social media and by the press, as it is said to be another title from the Witcher universe. On the one hand, this is known from statements made by the developers. On the other hand, the image in the announcement suggests that a Witcher medallion can be seen.
However, the project behind it is actually even bigger. There is not just one game planned. Three games are in the works under the title Polaris. In other words, there is to be another Witcher trilogy. The first part of this trilogy will probably not be called The Witcher 4. In the absence of concrete information, however, this public name will probably remain for the time being, although the studio itself is explicitly not working with this title.
When will “The Witcher 4” be released?
After initially only speculating, CD Projekt Red has now at least announced an approximate time frame for the launch of a new Witcher game. According to the Polish studio, we can’t expect any new additions before spring 2025. One reason for this is the new Unreal Engine 5, which is to be used in the game. Experts are expecting a launch in 2026.
The game went into pre-production at the beginning of 2024. In November 2024, it was then announced that the title is now in full production. Michał Nowakowski, Co-CEO of CD Projekt, said: “I can proudly confirm that the Polaris team completed pre-production a few weeks ago and started series production – the most intensive phase of development. We are very pleased with the progress of this project […].”
By the way, we probably won’t have to wait another ten years or so for the two subsequent parts. Adam Kicinski, President of CD Projekt Red, announced that they are planning a release in 2028 and 2031.
Incidentally, CD Projekt Red is also planning further Witcher games.
Large development team at the start
The game developer’s financial report published in November 2023 already gave an insight into the personnel movements behind the scenes. CD Projekt appears to be pooling a large part of its resources to drive the development of Witcher 4 even further from 2024. The chart shows that the Polaris team grew to become the largest in October 2023 and comprises around 330 employees.
CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński announced that the team will be expanded to around 400 developers by mid-2024. Some of the future developers will transfer over from the Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty teams, which will be referred to in full as “devs in transfer”.”After the release of Phantom Liberty on September 26, 2023, more and more capacities were freed up here, which are now flowing towards Polaris/Witcher 4. Another part will probably go to Sirius, which is being developed by The Molasses Flood.
As the studios CD Projekt and The Molasses Flood together only have around 700 employees, this redistribution also makes it clear how much the development of The Witcher 4 is being pushed.
CD Projekt wants to avoid mistakes with “The Witcher 4”
It is not always the case that everything runs smoothly when large AAA games are released. To avoid mistakes, CD Projekt wants to align its official unveiling with the launch date. This should also benefit marketing. This strategy is primarily intended to differentiate the game from Cyberpunk 2077. A number of things went wrong with the studio’s 2020 title.
On the one hand, CD Projekt apparently put itself under enormous pressure. The result: a game that simply wasn’t quite finished at launch. The console versions, in particular, were affected by a number of extensive bugs that initially made playing the game almost impossible. The Witcher 4 aims to avoid this at all costs. Charles Trembley, Vice President of Technology at the company, also emphasized this in an interview with Eurogamer: “It will be better, bigger and more extensive than The Witcher 3, and it will be better than Cyberpunk 2077 because it is not acceptable for us [to deliver such a launch].”
This is what the new “Witcher” games will be about
But what is, of course, at least as exciting as the release is the game’s storyline. After all, the first three parts were all about Geralt von Riva, the grey-haired witcher that fans already know from Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt then significantly expanded the circle of protagonists. The sorceresses Triss Merigold (already known from the previous parts), Yennefer von Vengerberg, and, of course, Geralt’s foster daughter Ciri also play a key role.
The lynx medallion
It is almost certain that CD Projekt Red will not bring Geralt out of his well-earned retirement for The Witcher 4. At most, a minor supporting role and a few allusions are expected. This is also suggested by the first image mentioned above, which was published together with the announcement of a new game. It shows a witcher medallion. However, it is not one of the ones already known from the games.
The witcher medallions always show the animal after which their school is named. Geralt is a member of the wolf school. There are also the following witcher schools in the games: cat, griffin, bear, snake/viper, and manticore. However, the picture shows the head of a lynx. So, will we possibly see a completely new school of witcher in The Witcher 4?
Who will be the main character in “The Witcher 4”?
As Geralt is unlikely to return, the question naturally arises as to who will follow in his footsteps. There are actually several theories about this.
One very popular one presents us with Ciri as a possible heroine. This would make sense in several respects. Although Ciri is not Geralt’s biological daughter, they are bound to each other in a special way by the law of surprise. There is also an exciting journey together and a rescue mission, which is the main subject of Sapkowski’s novels. And finally, a possible ending in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is that Ciri gets her own witcher sword – after all, the young woman was also trained at the witcher fortress Kaer Morhen. The theory is also popular because you could already play Ciri at times in Witcher 3, and she has some really useful skills.
Another theory deals with the new lynx school. It would also be possible to get a completely unknown new main character in The Witcher 4. This would make sense insofar as the announcement already mentioned a “new journey”.
What we know about the gameplay
The question of the new main character is also closely linked to the question of gameplay. Geralt and Ciri played completely differently in Witcher 3. While the Witcher deals more powerful sword blows and uses his witcher’s mark and a crossbow, Ciri is much faster and more agile. She owes this not least to her teleportation powers. But she can’t use sorcerer magic. Will we see elements of this in The Witcher 4?
Completely new gameplay
According to Managing Director Michal Nowakowski, CD Projekt Red wants to “create a completely new game” with The Witcher 4, which is not a remake of Witcher 3. The aim is to draw on successful elements from its predecessors. However, the title is intended to be a completely new game and, therefore, offer new experiences.
Nowakowski also mentions the new direction in the annual report for 2023. “Of course, we’re building on what’s come before and what we’ve learned, but we’ll be adding new gameplay elements and new mechanics that you haven’t seen in our previous games. I would say something like this is always a risk; it’s not just a repeat of what’s been done before.”
“Witcher 4” is to be a role-playing game again
This was also reaffirmed in the report for the first quarter of 2024, which was published on May 28. The studio also made an audio recording available on YouTube, which contains a detailed Q&A in addition to the written report.
Among other things, the question of the game’s genre is clearly answered there. According to the developers, The Witcher 4 will remain true to its predecessor and remain a role-playing game. Immediately afterward, however, it was reaffirmed that some changes would be made compared to its popular predecessor, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. They want to find new ways to tell the game’s story.
A key element of this is likely to be the aforementioned Unreal Engine 5, which was also mentioned earlier in the Q&A. According to the developers, the collaboration with Epic is going well in this regard, and they are very free to make their own decisions. At the same time, the cooperation would take away a lot of work, which would create space to focus more clearly on “creating content and stories”.
No microtransactions
While the statements on gameplay leave plenty of room for speculation, one thing is already clear. CD Projekt Red has already clearly ruled out that The Witcher 4 will come with microtransactions. Piotr Nielubowicz, CFO of the studio, made it clear that the concept of users purchasing items within the game for real money would not fit in with CD Projekt Red’s single-player titles.
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This is how much “The Witcher 4” could cost
At the moment, we can only speculate about the price of The Witcher 4. Games of this caliber currently cost between 60 and 70 euros. The title will probably be priced within this range if prices in the industry do not change dramatically before release.