CD Projekt Red has provided an update on the development of The Witcher 4 codenamed Project Polaris. According to the developer, the game is in a far more ‘advanced’ state than the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and remake of The Witcher, suggesting that it will be the first game to release among its current in-development titles.
Cyberpunk 2077 director Pawel Sasko briefly discussed the development of The Witcher 4 on the Flow Games podcast, stating, “The only difference is the Polaris project, so the new Witcher saga, that will enter production. That is the most advanced of all of those.”
Details are still murky about The Witcher 4. Fans speculate that the new saga could follow Ciri as the new protagonist of the series after Geralt of Rivia was given a conclusive ending in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. There’s also the possibility that a new protagonist could be created for the franchise, though it seems likely that Ciri will pick up the mantle – this much was teased in one of the endings for the third game.
Despite The Witcher 4 being in an ‘advanced’ state of development at the moment, it’s probably still a few years away from release. CD Projekt Red might’ve learned some valuable lessons from the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which released in a broken state with many missing features due to a rushed development time. The developer can’t take another gamble like that with The Witcher 4, especially since it only recently (mostly) regained the trust of fans with the overhauled Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.
In related news, analysts predict that The Witcher 4 will completely miss this generation of consoles and only launch on next-gen hardware. This is to be expected given the lengthy development times of most AAA games these days. Work on the anticipated sequel expanded back in August 2023 after CD Projekt Red announced that it was finally winding down development on Cyberpunk 2077.
Source: Flow Games podcast
