RPG fans, grab your potions. After a less than ideal launch of their last major title, CD Projekt Red is not playing around with its next big project, The Witcher 4. According to the company’s latest earnings report, the Warsaw-based studio is going all-in with a whopping 330 developers already grinding on The Witcher 4 as of the last quarter ending October 31.
On top of that, it’s planning to up that count to more than 400 by mid-2024, with some veterans from Cyberpunk 2077 transitioning to work on this behemoth. That kind of reinforcement will not only inject talent, but the kind of AAA launch experience this project needs.
The game, codenamed ‘Polaris’, is shaping up to be colossal. It’s the first main series entry since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt back in 2015, which sold more than 50 million copies. No pressure, CD Projekt Red, but the bar is sky-high. The Witcher 3 was a monster hit, ranking among the top 10 best-selling games in history, so the hype train for the next installment is predictably off the charts.
Sadly, we won’t be getting our hands on The Witcher 4 until at least 2025. The team’s shifting gears, moving from its proprietary REDengine to the latest Epic Games’ engine, Unreal Engine 5. Though REDengine 4 was crucial in the development of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red realizes that it will need to harness greater power for its multiple projects besides Polaris.
While we’re all twiddling our thumbs waiting for The Witcher 4, CD Projekt Red isn’t just sitting back. It will also be revamping The Witcher 3 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and brewing up something called ‘Sirius’ over at its Boston studio, The Molasses Flood.
However, it’s not all roses and rainbows; the company had to make some tough calls with layoffs as part of these new developments. This is part of a larger issue with the gaming industry, and major corporations as a whole recently which routinely post major profits but still axe positions en masse.
As for the Cyberpunk fans, don’t think you’ve been forgotten. CD Projekt Red is also cooking up a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. Dubbed as Project Orion behind closed doors, this upcoming game is still in its early brainstorming phase. A team of seasoned developers, the very folks who polished Cyberpunk 2077 and crafted Phantom Liberty, are at the forefront of this exciting venture.
So there you have it, folks. The Witcher 4 is coming, and it’s going to be big, bold, and full of Geralt-level awesomeness (fingers crossed). Here’s to hoping that we won’t have to endure another launch debacle like the one with Cyberpunk 2077. It was a rough ride, and I’m not sure I can handle a repeat performance.
