The Witcher 4 is officially in the works, though it probably won’t be called that when it finally launches. In fact, the next major entry in the currently beloved RPG series is called “Polaris,” which is kind of a codename while it’s being worked on.
CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 4 in a blog post early last year, along with several other projects related to The Witcher and Cyberpunk. The first The Witcher is being remastered, and some multiplayer projects are also in the works. But in terms of the main series, Polaris will release an entirely new trilogy of RPGs, all for next-gen consoles.
Thanks to a teaser image posted by the developer, as well as some comments made by those close to the game, we’re starting to get a picture of what The Witcher 4 might be like when it’s released. The game hasn’t been fully revealed yet, and we’ll likely have to wait a while before it is.
For now, here’s what we know about The Witcher 4, which we’re calling the next major game in the franchise. As new details emerge, you’ll find this page updated with all the latest news and rumors.
The Witcher 4: Cut to the chase
- What is this? The next main line is the game The Witcher
- When can I play? TBC
- What can I play on? TBC
The Witcher 4: release date and platforms
Let’s start by tempering our excitement. CD Projekt RED announced that The Witcher 4 is in active development, but also explained in a blog post (Opens in a new tab) No further details about the release date are available.
Now, to put that in some perspective, the original reveal trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 (Opens in a new tab) It was released seven years before the game actually came out. To put a little hope back into the situation, CD Projekt RED has released a trailer for the title reveal of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. (Opens in a new tab) Just two years before The Witcher 3 was released.
That’s all to say, we’re probably several years away from the release of The Witcher 4. Mark your calendars for 2024 at the earliest, though it’ll likely be longer.
No platforms have been confirmed for The Witcher 4 either, but that’s not surprising. We expect CD Projekt Red to take advantage of current-gen hardware, so releases on PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC look almost certain.
What we do know is that The Witcher 4 will be the first in a trilogy. This was revealed in October 2022 alongside a host of new The Witcher and Cyberpunk projects.
Polaris is a codename for the next installment in The Witcher series of games, which we recently announced was in pre-production. It’s the beginning of a new saga: we aim to release two more Witcher games after Polaris, to create a new AAA RPG trilogy. pic.twitter.com/898Ez6Yk79October 4, 2022
The Witcher 4: Story and Setting
Spoilers for The Witcher series
As mentioned above, there are very few details available about The Witcher 4. The official blog post only confirms that it is in development and being built in Unreal Engine 5. But, over the years, CD Projekt Red has said a lot about what a future Witcher game will include. .
For a start, it’s not really The Witcher 4.
“The first three Witchers were inherently trilogy, so we couldn’t simply call the next game ‘The Witcher 4′”, Kiciński said in an interview. “This does not mean, of course, that we will leave the world of The Witcher.”
At the end of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, monster hunter Geralt is alive and well. Well, at least he was alive. But his story is over, the Wild Hunt is over. That doesn’t mean he won’t be back in this new Witcher game, though he likely won’t be the main character.
“We’re not killing the world and taking away from it, but we definitely want to make this game the ultimate endgame in a big way,” the developer said as much in 2013. Executive Producer John Mamaes told Polygon. (Opens in a new tab). “We’ll probably include Geralt in later games. We just need to talk about it and see what we do next.”
Perhaps we’ll see the reins pass to Ciri – if it’s determined that she survives The Witcher 3 canonically to avoid continuity issues, perhaps the team will put its story head up to the events of Geralt’s adventures. After all, Netflix is developing a series set long before the events of the books, Blood Origin is set 1,000 years before the events of The Witcher.
Confirmation that the medal shown in the game’s advertisement image is a lynx certainly indicates that the game is going to take things in a new direction. This will likely introduce a whole new Witcher school.
The creator of the Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, has signed a new deal with the company to “solidify their relationship.” So. The studio is free to opt out of any of its short stories or novels. (If you feel like getting caught, here’s how to read The Witcher books in order.)
The Witcher 4: news and rumors
The Witcher 4 has its own game manager
Sebastian Kalemba, former chief animator of The Witcher 3, has been announced as the game director for The Witcher 4. They announced it on Twitter, saying they aim to “raise the bar.”
Career news: I’m directing the new Witcher Saga. Since joining @CDPROJEKTRED, I believe nothing is impossible and raising the bar, telling emotional stories and creating worlds is what we are here for. I am proud to be a part of CDPR and to work with such a talented and passionate team.November 3, 2022
Polaris and the all-new trilogy
In early October 2022, CD Projekt RED announced a handful of new titles via Twitter (Opens in a new tab), including the new The Witcher trilogy. Polaris (what we used to call The Witcher 4) will launch the new saga, which will then start over 6 years from the first release. Obviously, this is a huge undertaking, so we’ll have to wait and see if it pays off.
Reconfirm the beginning of a new story
CD Projekt RED has reconfirmed that The Witcher 4 will launch an epic. Although he wouldn’t confirm how many games these would include, CEO Adam Kiesinski made the comments during a recent earnings call. (Opens in a new tab).
“We said there will be a new saga. Of course, we are now pre-producing the first game of this saga. But we have more than one in mind. The first saga was three games, so now we are thinking of more than one game. But we are in pre-production In the first game of the second Witcher saga.
The first puzzle is solved: the medallion is a lynx
Following the detailed announcement that The Witcher 4 is in development, CD Projekt Red spoke about one point of fan speculation: the medal shown in the announcement image. It turns out to be a lynx, which indicates that CD Projekt Red has created an entirely new Witcher school for the new game.
“I can confirm that the medal was in fact shaped like a lynx,” Global Communications Director Robert Malinowski told Eurogamer. (Opens in a new tab).
However, although the Lynx School does not appear in the official Witcher stories, there are stories about the school elsewhere on the Internet – on the fictional Witcher wiki. (Opens in a new tab). On the fan wiki, the Lynx School forms after the Wolf School thaws. Founded by the remaining members – including Geralt – the school eventually leaves its home country and explores the Western Continent.
However, remember that this is all fan fiction, and therefore it is unlikely that it will be similar to the story that CD Projekt is developing for the new RPG. For a start, Geralt may not appear in the new game. In fact, the announcement speaks of a “new epic” that indicates an intent to move forward.
Advertising
Considering most game announcements come with fancy reveal trailers and big new websites, The Witcher 4 news is relatively muted. CD Projekt RED published a blog post (Opens in a new tab) With one piece of art and a few details on one of the most anticipated RPGs in gaming history.
“We are excited to announce that the next installment in The Witcher video game series is currently in development, kicking off a new saga for the franchise,” the developer wrote.
While the post doesn’t go into detail about the game’s release date or even how far the team has developed, it does include one major detail: CD Projekt RED has scrapped the game’s internal engine.
The team has used REDengine in every game since The Witcher 2. Able to support impressive open worlds, the Polish developer has spent years expanding its capabilities.
There was a huge jump in quality from The Witcher 2 to The Witcher 3, as technology was able to handle larger, denser worlds. Technology leapfrogged again with Cyberpunk 2077. While the world might have felt more trapped than The Witcher 3’s open plains and twisted forests, Night City was a bustling metropolis with massive amounts of activity sprawling above you through vertical apartment buildings.
However, Cyberpunk suffered major technical problems upon launch, which is probably why CD Projekt RED left its own engine behind in favor of the industry standard: Unreal Engine 5.
“We are transitioning from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5,” CD Projekt wrote in the blog post, beginning a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. Covers not only the license, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as possible future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. We will work closely with the Epic Games developers with the primary goal of helping to design the engine for open world experiences. “
Before we got to see any games for the PlayStation 5, we saw a tech demo of Unreal Engine 5 running on the console. Epic Games has been keen to push this new version of their engine as the technology for the new generation of consoles. The fact that The Witcher 4 will be built with this technology is something Epic can cry out and Witcher fans burned by cyberpunk can take solace.
Of course, the game engine is just a set of tools. It does not make the game good or bad. And while many of the folks at CD Projekt RED have used Unreal Engine technology during their careers, turning the entire studio into a different set of tools is a production challenge that can play out in the final game.