The Witcher 4 is officially in the works, although we don’t know much about it yet. It’s called “Polaris” in development for now, and there’s a good chance it’ll have a completely different name at launch.
CD Projekt RED announced The Witcher 4 in a blog post early last year, alongside several other projects related to The Witcher and Cyberpunk. The first Witcher game is being reworked and even multiplayer projects are in the works. However, as far as the main series goes, Polaris will kick off a whole new trilogy of RPGs, all for next-gen consoles.
A teaser image was revealed in-game at the time of its announcement, sparking speculation that it may be for a brand new school of The Witcher. While we wait for more information, this page will be updated regularly with all the latest news and rumors. Here’s everything we know about the game so far.
The Witcher 4: get to the point
- What is this? Another major Witcher game
- When can I play it? to be confirmed
- What can I play it on? to be confirmed
The Witcher 4: release date and platforms
Let’s start by cooling down our excitement. This was reported by CD Projekt RED The Witcher 4 is in active development, but also clarified in blog post (opens in a new tab) that “no further details on the release date” are available.
Now, to put it in perspective, the original reveal teaser Cyberpunk 2077 (opens in a new tab) it was released seven years before the game actually came out. To bring some hope back to the situation, CD Projekt RED released a The The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt the title reveals the teaser (opens in a new tab) just two years before the premiere of The Witcher 3.
That’s all there is to say, we are probably many years apart The Witcher 4′release. Mark your calendars for 2024 at the earliest, though it’s likely to be longer.
No platforms for The Witcher 4 have been confirmed, but this is not surprising. We expect CD Projekt Red to use current-gen hardware, so PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC releases seem almost certain.
What we know is this The Witcher 4 will be the first part of a trilogy. This was revealed in October 2022 along with some new The Witcher and Cyberpunk projects.
Polaris is the codename for the next installment of The Witcher series of games, which, as we recently reported, is in the pre-production phase. This is the beginning of a new saga: after Polaris, we intend to release two more The Witcher games, creating a new AAA RPG trilogy. pic.twitter.com/898Ez6Yk79October 4, 2022
The Witcher 4: plot and setting
The Witcher game series spoilers
As mentioned above, few details are available about it The Witcher 4. The official blog post only confirms that it’s in development and that it’s being built in Unreal Engine 5. But over the years, CD Projekt Red has said a lot about what a future Witcher game will involve.
For starters, it really isn’t The Witcher 4.
“The first three ‘The Witcher’ games were by definition a trilogy, so we just couldn’t call the next game ‘The Witcher 4’,” said Kiciński interview. “This does not mean, of course, that we will leave the world of The Witcher.”
At the end The Witcher 3: Blood and Winemonster hunter Geralt was alive and well. Well, at least he was alive. But his storyline is over, the Wild Hunt is over. That doesn’t mean he won’t be back in the new Witcher game, though he probably won’t be the main character.
The developer said the same thing back in 2013: “We’re not killing the world and we’re not moving away from it, but we’re definitely going to want this game to be a grand finale,” said executive producer John Mamais Polygon (opens in a new tab). “We could even potentially include Geralt in later games. We just need to talk about it and find out what we’re going to do next.”
Perhaps we will see how the reins will pass into Ciri’s hands – if it is decided that she canonically survived The Witcher 3. To avoid continuity issues, perhaps the team will set their plot around the events of Geralt’s adventures. After all, Netflix is developing a series set long before the events of the books, Blood Origin is a prequel set 1,000 years before the events of The Witcher.
The confirmation that the medallion shown in the game’s preview image is a lynx certainly suggests the game is going in a new direction. This potentially introduces a whole new school of The Witcher.
The author of The Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, has signed a new deal with the company to “further strengthen their relationship.” So. the studio is free to draw from any of its stories or novels. (If you want to get caught, here’s how to read The Witcher books in order.)
The Witcher 4: news and rumors
The Witcher 4 has its own game director
Sebastian Kalemba, former chief animator for The Witcher 3was announced as game director for The Witcher 4. They announced it on Twitter, stating that they aim to “raise the bar”.
Professional news: I’m directing a new saga about The Witcher. Since joining @CDPROJEKTRED, I believe nothing is impossible and that raising the bar, telling emotional stories and creating worlds is what we’re here for. I am proud to be part of CDPR and work with such a talented and passionate team.November 3, 2022
Polaris and a brand new trilogy
At the beginning of October 2022, CD Projekt RED announced a handful of new titles via Twitter (opens in a new tab)including the new The Witcher trilogy. Polaris (what we used to call The Witcher 4) will begin a new saga that will take place over 6 years from the first release. It’s obviously a huge undertaking, so we’ll have to wait and see if it pays off.
I confirm the beginning of a new saga
CD Projekt RED confirmed it again The Witcher 4 will start the saga. While it hasn’t been confirmed how many games this will take, CEO Adam Kiciński commented during last call for earnings (opens in a new tab).
“We said there would be a new saga. Of course, now we are preparing the first game of this saga. But we mean more than one. The first saga consisted of three games, so now we’re thinking of more than one game. But we are in the pre-production phase of the first game in the second Witcher saga.”
First puzzle solved: the medallion is a lynx
After the detailed announcement that The Witcher 4 is in development, CD Projekt Red has spoken out to address one point of fan speculation: the medallion shown in the announcement image. It turns out to be a lynx, suggesting that CD Projekt Red has created a whole new Witcher school for the new game.
“I can confirm that the medallion is in fact shaped like a lynx,” said Global Communications Director Robert Malinowski Eurogamer (opens in a new tab).
However, although the School of Lynx does not appear in official The Witcher fiction, stories about the school circulate on the Internet – na fan fiction wiki about The Witcher (opens in a new tab). On the fan wiki, the School of Lynx is created after the School of the Wolf is disbanded. Founded by surviving members – including Geralt – the school eventually leaves its homeland and explores the western continent.
Keep in mind though that this is all fanfiction and therefore unlikely to be anything like the story CD Projekt is working on for its new RPG. For starters, Geralt may not even appear in the new game. Indeed, the announcement talks about a “new saga” that suggests an intention to move on.
Announcement
Given that most gaming announcements feature fancy reveal trailers and big new websites, news about The Witcher 4 it is relatively quiet. CD Projekt RED has published, among others blog post (opens in a new tab) with one key piece of art and skimpy details about one of the most anticipated RPGs in gaming history.
“We are happy to announce that the next installment of The Witcher video game series is in the works, starting a new saga for the series,” writes the developer.
While the post doesn’t go into detail about the game’s release date or even how far the team is in development, it does include one major detail: CD Projekt RED has ditched its in-house game engine.
Since then, the team has used REDengine in every game The Witcher 2. Capable of handling great open worlds, the Polish developer has spent years developing its capabilities.
There has been a huge qualitative leap since The Witcher 2 Down The Witcher 3, and the technology is capable of handling much larger, denser worlds. The technician jumped in again with Cyberpunk 2077. While the world might have felt more hemmed in than The Witcher 3The open plains and winding forests of Night City were a crowded city with a huge amount of activity stretching above you in vertical blocks of flats.
Despite this, Cyberpunk had serious technical problems at launch, and perhaps this is what prompted CD Projekt RED to abandon its own engine in favor of the industry standard: Unreal Engine 5.
“We are moving from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5,” writes CD Projekt in a blog post, “starting a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. This includes not only licensing but also the technical development of Unreal Engine 5 as well as potential future releases of Unreal Engine where applicable. We will be working closely with Epic Games developers, with the main goal being to help tailor the engine to the open-world experience.”
Before we saw any PlayStation 5 games, we saw the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo running on the console. Epic Games was very keen to promote this new version of its engine as a technology for the next generation of consoles. Fact The Witcher 4 will be built with this tech is something Epic can shout about and Cyberpunk burnt Witcher fans can take comfort in.
Of course, the game engine is just a set of tools, it doesn’t make a game good or bad. And although many people at CD Projekt RED have used Unreal Engine technology in their careers, moving the entire studio to a different set of tools is a production challenge that may appear in the final version of the game.