CDPR had earlier pledged to the “three Witcher games in six years” initiative in 2022, when The Witcher 4 was still in pre-production and referred to as “Project Polaris.” At that point, CDPR announced involvement from “150+ people” in the game’s creation, a figure that has since expanded to 447 active developers as per CDPR’s most recent Earnings Report.
A technology demonstration of The Witcher 4 from this summer showcases some remarkable graphics technology.
This summer we received the first public insight into the work of those developers via an impressive The Witcher 4 technology demo presented running on a PS5 during Epic’s State of Unreal presentation. However, that technical showcase was described as “not actual gameplay,” even during segments that were apparently being controlled live by one of CDPR’s developers.
All the effort on a brand-new engine supporting The Witcher 4 could facilitate CDPR in producing further sequels at an expedited pace. Nonetheless, delivering three major Witcher titles within a six-year timeframe is quite an ambitious commitment, particularly given the approximately eight-year interval between the 2007 launch of The Witcher and the 2015 debut of The Witcher 3.
It’s important to remember that CDPR is also simultaneously developing a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, which has expanded to include a 135-person development team that CDPR anticipates will grow to over 300 developers by 2027. Additionally, the studio is diligently working on a multiplayer Witcher spinoff known as “Project Sirius,” a “modern reimagining” of the first The Witcher game (which has also been under development for almost four years), and the still-enigmatic Project Hadar to boot. This represents a significant workload for a still-expanding company that had merely 250 employees when The Witcher 3 was released.
Moreover, it’s noteworthy that, even with a rapid development timeline, the technology designed today for The Witcher 4 may require substantial updates to accommodate new console and GPU hardware that will be standard by the time The Witcher 6 is eventually launched. With Epic stating that a preview of Unreal Engine 6 could arrive in just two to three years, we certainly hope CD Projekt Red is ensuring its ambitious development strategies are future-proofed.
