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CD Projekt is due to start production on The Witcher 4 this year, codenamed ‘Polaris’ internally. CD Projekt first announced Polaris back in 2022 during a studio livestream. At the time it was unveiling its roadmap for the future, at which point it announced plans for several new game projects, including Polaris, otherwise known as The Witcher 4. It also revealed the Cyberpunk 2077 codenamed Orion, as well as another game in the series of The Witcher that would later be confirmed as a remake of the original The Witcher game launched back in 2007.
CD Projekt hasn’t shared too much information about Polaris yet. But based on recent reports about the game’s direction, it could be a pivotal moment for the series. The Witcher has almost always followed Geralt of Rivia as the main protagonist. Aside from a couple of The Witcher spin-off shows on Netflix. But that won’t be the case with The Witcher 4. Instead of focusing on Geralt, the studio will be using an entirely different character as the focus of the game. A fitting decision since Polaris is supposed to be the start of a new trilogy within the universe of The Witcher.
Who the lead character might be hasn’t been announced. But Gerlat’s voice actor says the focus isn’t on Geralt. Some fans think this might be opening the door for Ciri to be the main character. After her well-received segments of gameplay in The Witcher 3, this might not be a bad idea. But it would also be interesting to see completely unfamiliar characters take the helm. Or perhaps for players to be given the chance to create their own Witcher and build their own story with the game’s characters.
CD Projekt wants to have 400 people working on The Witcher 4 production by mid-year
Now that Cyberpunk 2077 is essentially done following the release of Phantom Liberty last September, CD Projekt is moving into a phase where it likely won’t have anything major releasing (that we know of) for the next couple of years. It’s suspected that The Witcher 4 won’t be released until sometime in 2026 or 2027. If those estimates are true, then you’ll have to turn elsewhere for your Witcher fix. The good news there is that The Witcher 3 is an excellent game. And you can often find it and the DLC on sale for a low price. It also includes tons of playable content that could take a very long time to complete in its entirety.
So if you haven’t played The Witcher 3 yet, now is as good of a time as any. In terms of production on The Witcher 4, things at CD Projekt are starting to ramp up. Speaking to Reuters, joint CEO Adam Badowski says they’d like to have about 400 people working on production for the game by the middle of the year. Badowski doesn’t mention whether or not those 400 would be the entire team. Badowski also doesn’t mention when production on the game is actually beginning. But there’s a good chance it may be starting soon if the studio wants to scale up to 400 developers by this Summer.
CD Projekt is also working on quite a few other projects, one of which is the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. As Wccftech notes, development on this started a little earlier this month.