Two and a half years after announcing The Witcher 4 – or rather the “the first instalment in the new Witcher saga”, as it’s now more officially known – CD Projekt has confirmed pre-production is almost over and that full production on the game will begin “soon”.
CD Projekt’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski shared the news in a press release outlining the studio’s work so far in 2024, explaining development on the new Witcher game (codenamed Polaris) is “nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the pre-production phase”.
In an earnings video accompanying CD Projekt’s latest financial results, chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz expanded on Nowakowski’s comments a little, saying, “The Polaris team, working on the next game in The Witcher saga, made substantial progress, which will soon enable us to wrap up pre-production and take this project to the full production phase.”
Little has been revealed about CD Projeckt’s next Witcher game beyond a tantalising bit of promo art, but actor Doug Cockle recently confirmed that while he’ll be returning as Geralt of Rivia, the game “won’t focus on Geralt. So it’s not about him this time.”
Alongside Polaris, CD Projekt is also continuing to work on projects Orion, Sirius, and Hadar. Sirius is the Witcher spin-off that was re-evaluated and rebooted last year, while Hadar is the studio’s new unannounced IP. As for Orion, that’s the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel (which may or may not have multiplayer), and its Boston-based development team is still “laying the groundwork” for the project, according to Nowakowski in today’s studio update.
And in other Cyberpunk news, Nowakowski confirmed during the company’s latest earnings call (thanks IGN) that CD Projekt is “definitely planning to do more in terms of animation with Cyberpunk” following the success of Netflix’s Edgerunners series. And while a Season 2 isn’t on the cards according to comments made by CD Projekt’s Japan country manager Satoru Honma back in 2022, Nowakowski has insisted more animation is coming “for sure”.