Developer CD Projekt Red confirmed on Wednesday that a fourth Witcher game, codenamed Project Polaris, is almost in production. In a statement detailing earnings for the first half of the fiscal year, the studio said it is nearing completion of pre-production on the game. The Witcher 4 was originally released by CD Projekt Red in 2022 and was later confirmed to be the first in a new trilogy of The Witcher games.
The Witcher 4 is about to enter production
In a press statement outlining financial results for the first half of 2024, CD Projekt Red said the company will begin the full production phase of Project Polaris. Michał Nowakowski, co-CEO of CD Projekt Red, said: “Work at Polaris is progressing and its development team is about to reach an important milestone that will mark the end of the pre-production phase.”
The studio didn’t provide any other details about The Witcher 4, but confirmed it was “laying the groundwork” for Project Orion – the next game set in the cyberpunk universe.
Project Polaris was first announced in March 2022, with the studio confirming that the game would be built in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. Later that year, CD Projekt Red revealed that Polaris would be the beginning of a new Witcher saga – the first of a new trilogy, with the studio aiming to deliver all three games within six years of The Witcher 4’s launch.
What we know about The Witcher 4
The Witcher 4 is confirmed to be a story-driven open world role-playing game “built on the foundations of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.” CD Projekt is also producing two other Witcher games outside of the new trilogy – a multiplayer Witcher game called Project Sirius, and a story-driven open world game called Canis Majoris, which is confirmed to be a full Unreal Engine 5 remake of the first Witcher game.
In an early earnings report released in November 2023, CD Projekt Red confirmed that nearly half of the studio (consisting of more than 300 developers) is working on The Witcher 4. However, the company has yet to announce a release schedule for the game.
Recently, the voice actor for Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist of the first three games, claimed that the character will appear in The Witcher 4, but will not have a central role. “The Witcher 4 has been announced. I can’t say anything about it,” Doug Cockle said in an interview earlier this month. “We knew Geralt was going to be a part of the game, but we just didn’t know how much. And the game wasn’t going to be focused on Geralt, so it wasn’t about him this time.”
