The next Witcher game is only in pre-production, but developer CD Projekt Red is envisioning some pretty grandiose plans for it. It might not be surprising to hear, but CDPR expects the game to be the start of a new multi-game saga, not just a single title.
CD Projekt president Adam Kiciński said as much during an earnings call (via VGC). “We have in mind more than one,” Kiciński stated. “The first saga was three games, so now we are thinking about more than one game, but we are in pre-production of the first game from the second Witcher saga.” His statement both reaffirms the game’s pre-production status and confirms that it is the first in a new series. Plans can change of course, but as long as the series is successful, CD Projekt will continue to shepherd it.
We know very little about The Witcher 4 (as it’s been colloquially called) at this stage. It’s being built on Unreal Engine 5, and the only released piece of art shows a Witcher school medallion in the snow. It was believed to be a cat at first, leading fans to think that the new saga would focus on Ciri. We’ve since learned that the medallion is actually a lynx, the totem animal of a Witcher school that’s canonically formed after the current game timeline. Considering the director pledged the team wouldn’t be crunching on the development of the game, it’s probably going to be a while until we hear more.
Later on the same call (again via VGC), Kiciński brought up the next-gen release of The Witcher 3. The native PlayStation 5 and Xbox One versions have been delayed before, but Kiciński said they’re “on track” for the current release window of Q4 2022. The Witcher 3 passed 40 million copies sold earlier this year, and that number is only going to increase when it comes to new consoles.
