Joint CEO Adam Badowski informed Reuters that the company aims to commence the production phase of The Witcher 4, codenamed Polaris, this year.
In March 2022, the company announced that the upcoming Witcher game would initiate “a new saga” for the franchise, which has garnered over 75 million copies in sales since its debut in 2007.
The company also disclosed that the open-world game is under construction using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, departing from its proprietary REDengine, utilized in previous Witcher titles and Cyberpunk 2077.
CD Projekt verified in May of the previous year that it had concluded the research phase for the game, marking the initial segment of a new trilogy, and advanced to the pre-production stage.
In November of the same year, it stated that nearly 330 developers were actively engaged in the project, establishing it as CD Projekt’s largest development team, surpassing the size of the team dedicated to Cyberpunk.
“We aim to have approximately 400 individuals involved in the project by mid-year,” Badowski informed Reuters, with analysts anticipating a potential release for the game in 2026 or 2027.
Meanwhile, a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, identified as Project Orion, is presently undergoing the “conceptual design” stage at CD Projekt’s North America studios.
Badowski outlined that the company foresees having approximately 80 team members dedicated to the game by the conclusion of the year.
Joint CEO Michal Nowakowski also mentioned CD Projekt’s consideration of incorporating multiplayer elements in the sequel.
Originally, the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077 was planned as a standalone AAA Cyberpunk multiplayer game. However, the project was abandoned after the original game’s problematic release.
“Given our new, more systematic and agile approach, instead of primarily focusing on one big online experience or game, we are focusing on bringing online into all of our franchises one day,” stated former CEO Adam Kiciński, who now serves as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, in March 2021.
Nowakowski additionally noted the establishment of a team to explore the utilization of AI in development.
“We think that AI is something that can help improve certain processes in game production but not replace people,” he emphasized.
