CD Project Red: The Witcher IV Coming Soon 75 Comments
Image: CD Project Red
The Witcher 4 will definitely not be released before 2027, as CD Project Red announced during its 2024 sales results presentation. Surprisingly, this painful announcement may not come soon, after all, the title has only been in “full production” for six months.
The Witcher IV Will Not Come Until the End of 2026
Witcher 4 has been a secret for a long time, but the new witch section starring Cirilla was officially unveiled at the end of 2024 as part of The Game Awards. However, CD Project didn’t mention a date, which naturally prompted speculation—among other things, because a footnote in the first trailer implicitly referred to the current Blackwell generation of GeForce graphics cards. A new GPU generation typically appears every two years; speculation that the Witcher 4 will also be available from early 2025 has been fueled. CD Project is now making a cancellation.
While there is still no specific date for the next installment in the game series, a possible release within the next two years was explicitly ruled out by the presentation of the 2024 business results. During the presentation, the idea of financial targets in connection with an internal bonus program for management was raised. The Polish publisher emphasized that a release was not planned until the end of 2026. This statement was later confirmed in a question and answer session by CFO Piotr. While he declined to give a specific date, he explained that the release would definitely not take place within the current target period of the bonus program—that is, by December 31, 2026.
This is not fundamentally surprising, but in its clarity, it could be a sudden surprise for many players. It wasn’t until November 2024 that CD Project announced that The Witcher 4 was in “full production.” Cyberpunk 2077 achieved this status in 2016 and, as is well known, was released in late 2020; for The Witcher 4, four years of full production would indicate 2028. However, over 400 developers were already involved in The Witcher 4 by spring 2024, more than in “pre-production” for Cyberpunk 2077. A 2027 release is therefore entirely possible.
Witcher Ciri in the Unreal 5 Engine
After the Geralt saga ended with a trilogy, Ciri was the obvious choice for the protagonist of a new witch. Already in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel, she was given this role towards the end of the story, and also in The Witcher 3, Ciri was still playable in level sections. In The Witcher 4, Ciri takes over as the main character. It’s well known, however, that the new game is definitely not expected to be “The Witcher 3 with a new coat of paint.”
[a]Making a new game is always a creative risk, especially since we’re trying to push new boundaries and explore new areas, to do something we’ve never done before. You shouldn’t expect a Witcher 3 in new clothes.[…]
I mean, of course, we’re building on what’s come before and what’s been learned from what’s come before, but we’ll be adding new things, new elements, new gameplay elements, new mechanics that you haven’t seen in our previous games so far.
Michał Nowakowski, CEO of CD Projekt
The Witcher 4 will once again offer an open game world as the beginning of a new saga and will build on what the developer has released so far. However, there will be many new elements, new gameplay mechanics, and other “groundbreaking new features” that CD Projekt Red doesn’t know about. Hexer Geralt of Riva will also be part of the party, but only in a supporting role or even a guest appearance.
It’s also clear that The Witcher 4 will not once again be based on the Red Engine, which marked a significant milestone in gaming graphics with RT Overdrive in Cyberpunk 2077, but will instead be created as a showcase project in the Unreal Engine 5. According to Cyberpunk 2077, Nvidia is once again positioned as a technology partner.
Topics: CD Project Gaming Role Playing The Witcher IV Witcher Source: CD Project
A lifelong video game enthusiast, Julien reviews the latest releases and explores the technologies transforming the gaming world.
