Something to look forward to: Fans of CD Projekt Red games have a lot of upcoming titles they're looking forward to: the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, a Witcher 1 remake, The Witcher 4, and several others. Now, an executive from the Polish studio has confirmed that The Witcher 4 is by far the one furthest along its development cycle, suggesting that it will get here before the other big titles.
After outlining several new projects in a 2022 roadmap, CD Projekt said in January this year that the production phase of The Witcher 4, codenamed Polaris, would start in 2024. In March, it was confirmed that the team working on the game had reached 403 employees, about two-thirds of the entire CDPR staff, with many moving over from the Cyberpunk 2077 update team.
In an interview with the Flow Games podcast, Pawel Sasko, associate game director on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, confirmed that The Witcher 4 is "the most advanced" of all the games CDPR is working on – that's in terms of how far along the development is, not its tech.
Just because The Witcher 4 has 407 people working on it (as of the end of April) doesn't mean it will be here anytime soon. Sasko emphasized that most of the projects are in their "early stages" and the company won't be showing off teasers or trailers for "a while," so don't expect to be playing these for a long time yet. He did add, however, that full production of The Witcher 4 will begin soon.
– CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) May 28, 2024
The Witcher 4 will be the start of a new trilogy that director Sebastian Kalemba says will be an excellent entry point for many players while still containing things that longtime fans will appreciate. He hopes it will surpass The Witcher 3, which this writer still considers the greatest game of all time, by offering a more intense story and gameplay.
Away from The Witcher 4, one suspects it will be many years before the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, codenamed Orion, gets here. In March, just 47 people were working on pre-production of what will doubtlessly be a massive game with a huge budget, and CDPR will work hard to avoid the disastrous launch that its predecessor experienced.
