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Nearly Half of CD Projekt Now Working on The Witcher 4 - IGN

Nearly half of CD Projekt Red is now working on The Witcher 4, codenamed Polaris, following the release of Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty.

www.ign.com

Nearly half of CD Projekt Red is now working on The Witcher 4, codenamed Polaris, following the release of Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty.

Confirmation arrived during CD Projekt Red's latest earnings report, which indicated almost 330 developers, or just under 50% of its development staff, were working on the highly anticipated sequel as of October 31, 2023.

CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński also confirmed the company expects more than 400 developers will be working on Polaris by mid 2024. The Polaris team had grown to 260 members as of July 31, 2023, more than a third of all of CD Projekt Red, but development on the game is ramping up following the release of Phantom Liberty.

 

[Tsaki]

Hopefully they put their top talent on Witcher 4. They don't want another CP2077 fiasco (which still sold 25million units) and this game has huge potential to do gangbusters.
The "Other Projects" (blue colour) includes Orion (Cyberpunk sequel) and Project Canis Majoris (Witcher 1 Remake). I'm definitely looking forward to the Remake since it is sorely needed, but will be a massive undertaking, taking the partially open-world bits of The Witcher and combine them into one completely open world.
Edit: Apparently the Remake would not be included in this graph since it's made externally.

 

[Fake]

Please don't fuck this time.

 

[Xtib81]

Can't even imagine how incredible it may look on UE5. Hopefully, they'll take their time and won't rush it. I don't expect the game to release before the end of the gen though.

 

[LectureMaster]

Take good time, write a compelling story, consult Andrzej, do good optimization, only market what you actually can do in the game.

This Witcher entry after Geralt needs to succeed.

 

[64bitmodels]

Can't even imagine how incredible it may look on UE5.

However incredible it will look, it will almost certainly run like dogwater.

 

[Xtib81]

However incredible it will look, it will almost certainly run like dogwater.

Yeah, knowing CD projekt, it's a given indeed.

 

[zeroluck]

Their number one priority should be better player locomotion, also hope the horse tech is at least within a close distance to RDR2, I really don't want to see those youtube comparison videos happening again.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

I do wish they were working on a Cyberpunk sequel instead. As flawed as that game is, there are so many elements they could improve upon from the original. I don't really know how CDPR make Witcher 4 vastly improved upon Witcher 3 . There are already so many fantasy games already set in medieval times with many more currently in development

 

[Fabieter]

Let's us make our own witcher pls.

 

[Dazraell]

The "Other Projects" (blue colour) includes Orion (Cyberpunk sequel) and Project Canis Majoris (Witcher 1 Remake). I'm definitely looking forward to the Remake since it is sorely needed, but will be a massive undertaking, taking the partially open-world bits of The Witcher and combine them into one completely open world.

I might be wrong, but I believe Other Projects might be related to Hadar (CDPR's new IP) and Orion (Cyberpunk's sequel). Canis Majoris (Witcher 1 Remake) is actually outsourced to an external studio called Fool's Theory. If there is someone working on it from CDPR, they may only have a small team overseeing it

 

[Alebrije]

By the time is done PS6 will be around...hope they just release W4 on one generation to avoid the Cyberpunk nightmare

 

[Ristifer]

 

[Tsaki]

I might be wrong, but I believe Other Projects might be related to Hadar (CDPR's new IP) and Orion (Cyberpunk's sequel). Canis Majoris (Witcher 1 Remake) is actually outsourced to an external studio called Fool's Theory. If there is someone working on it from CDPR, they may only have a small team overseeing it

I did not know/remember this actually. Thanks!

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Hopefully they put their top talent on Witcher 4. They don't want another CP2077 fiasco (which still sold 25million units) and this game has huge potential to do gangbusters.
The "Other Projects" (blue colour) includes Orion (Cyberpunk sequel) and Project Canis Majoris (Witcher 1 Remake). I'm definitely looking forward to the Remake since it is sorely needed, but will be a massive undertaking, taking the partially open-world bits of The Witcher and combine them into one completely open world.

The Witcher remake project is done by another studio I believe which is why it’s not mentioned in this graphic. Otherwise it’s an enormous project that I would think be about the same amount of work as making a brand new game. And it’s like a FF VII remake style remake, which is basically just a new game.

 

[Dazraell]

By the time is done PS6 will be around...hope they just release W4 on one generation to avoid the Cyberpunk nightmare

Apparently one of the things they started implementing during Phantom Liberty development is a mandate for having the game playable on all of the target platforms during every milestone. One of the devs at CD Projekt said that the next Witcher game is also developed with the same principle, so it's safe to assume it's coming on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series

 

[Senua]

This game will be incredible, time to replay the trilogy again!

 

[U n i o n 0015]

I'm actually more excited for the Witcher 1 remake. I like the first a lot and if the remake feels like Witcher 3, it's going to be an awesome experience.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Let's us make our own witcher pls.

Please! Make it a hardcore RPG. Look at BG3. There's a market for that.

 

[SHA]

I dislike that some people are not optimistic about it.

 

[Dazraell]

The Witcher remake project is done by another studio I believe which is why it’s not mentioned in this graphic. Otherwise it’s an enormous project that I would think be about the same amount of work as making a brand new game. And it’s like a FF VII remake style remake, which is basically just a new game.

Personally speaking, I would compare it to Mafia: Definitive Edition or Resident Evil Remakes, which reimagined the original game in a brand new way. The first Witcher is a fascinating case as a lot of game systems were created in a way that they technically should support transition to the open world. But I'm quite certain a lot of the dialogue and quests will be rewritten from the ground up, some systems (like combat) will be completely changed and a new technology should offer them more creative opportunities to incorporate some cutscenes, level design and interactions that weren't possible back in 2007 on Aurora Engine. Plus they would have to give an option to players to go back to previously visited areas, and by extent giving them a chance to see the consequences of their past actions, which should be really neat idea

 

[Del_X]

Real time trailer at VGA 2024 and release in late 2026 is my guess. If it takes longer than that, their investment in UE5 (which is supposed bring tooling that speeds along development) was misguided.

 

[Del_X]

I do wish they were working on a Cyberpunk sequel instead. As flawed as that game is, there are so many elements they could improve upon from the original. I don't really know how CDPR make Witcher 4 vastly improved upon Witcher 3 . There are already so many fantasy games already set in medieval times with many more currently in development

They have a new Studio in boston being spun up for Orion (Cyberpunk sequel). A lot of the devs on Cyberpunk are uprooting their lives to work on it.

 

[Mozzarella]

Should be VTMB2 instead.

 

[Dazraell]

I did not know/remember this actually. Thanks!

Fun fact, CDPR tried to do The Witcher 1 remake back in 2009, but it was cancelled. The project was called Rise of the White Wolf and was supposed to be released on PS3 and Xbox 360. It was also outsourced, but to a French company. There were some troubles with communication and a studio wasn't really into The Witcher brand, which left CDPR very unsatisfied with the game quality, and there was also a financial crisis which hit them very hard. Each of these things let to project being cancelled

I'm curiously looking at TW1 Remake's development as they outsourced it again. But this time they kept it in the same country as Fool's Theory is also from Poland, and it also has a lot of developers who were working on entire Witcher trilogy. So in this case things hopefully will go much more smoothly

 

[MagiusNecros]

Let's us make our own witcher pls.

Yes pls. Sorcerer/Sorceress as an option would be nice too. Or even a hybrid Witcher/Mage kind of deal.

Just hope the character isn't preset.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

They have a new Studio in boston being spun up for Orion (Cyberpunk sequel). A lot of the devs on Cyberpunk are uprooting their lives to work on it.

Yeah, I heard about that. I would say 2029 at the earliest tho

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Personally speaking, I would compare it to Mafia: Definitive Edition or Resident Evil Remakes, which reimagined the original game in a brand new way. The first Witcher is a fascinating case as a lot of game systems were created in a way that they technically should support transition to the open world. But I'm quite certain a lot of the dialogue and quests will be rewritten from the ground up, some systems (like combat) will be completely changed and a new technology should offer them more creative opportunities to incorporate some cutscenes, level design and interactions that weren't possible back in 2007 on Aurora Engine. Plus they would have to give an option to players to go back to previously visited areas, and by extent giving them a chance to see the consequences of their past actions, which should be really neat idea

I guess I'm not sure on the difference in concept between the RE Remakes and the approach for FFVII Remake. They are reimagining the original in a brand new way. That seems to also be what they are doing here with Witcher 1. The way I understood the announcement is that it will also make the game look like as if it were a brand new game. So in order to do that, among everything else it will have, that sounds to me like about the same amount of effort as making a new game. Except instead of designing and concepting the game from scratch, they're going to build it using the original as the framework to draw from.

"CD Projekt Red has confirmed that its Unreal Engine 5 remake of 2007's The Witcher will be fully open world.

Revealed during its third quarter financial results, CD Projekt Red briefly mentioned its announcement of The Witcher Remake, saying that it will be a "story-driven, single player open world RPG".

The studio had previously only confirmed that it would be another "full-fledged" Witcher game, but as the original is not open world, there was still speculation whether or not the remake would resemble the 2007 version or something closer to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt."

Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/the-witcher-remake-will-be-open-world-cd-projekt-red-confirms

 

[Dazraell]

The way I understood the announcement is that it will also make the game look like as if it were a brand new game. So in order to do that, among everything else it will have, that sounds to me like about the same amount of effort as making a new game. Except instead of designing and concepting the game from scratch, they're going to build it using the framework from the original.

"CD Projekt Red has confirmed that its Unreal Engine 5 remake of 2007's The Witcher will be fully open world.

Revealed during its third quarter financial results, CD Projekt Red briefly mentioned its announcement of The Witcher Remake, saying that it will be a "story-driven, single player open world RPG".

The studio had previously only confirmed that it would be another "full-fledged" Witcher game, but as the original is not open world, there was still speculation whether or not the remake would resemble the 2007 version or something closer to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt."

Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/the-witcher-remake-will-be-open-world-cd-projekt-red-confirms

Oh yeah, I get you. But I still think FFVII Remake isn't the good example as it's a one game split into trilogy and each game is similar length to the original game

That's why I used RE Remakes and Mafia Definitive Edition as an example as they recreated the game on a new engine, redone a lot key mechanics (original Mafia didn't had open world while Definitive Edition had something closer to it) and reimagined originals in a way that it's essentially feel like a brand new game. Still familiar, but far from being the same

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

I do wish they were working on a Cyberpunk sequel instead. As flawed as that game is, there are so many elements they could improve upon from the original. I don't really know how CDPR make Witcher 4 vastly improved upon Witcher 3 . There are already so many fantasy games already set in medieval times with many more currently in development

They are. Being made by some new shared studios in North America. A lot of the same people from CP2077 and PL. Still in the early planning stages, so it will be years before we see it.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Please don't fuck this time.

 

[Stafford]

Sooooo....

Any guesses when we might be seeing this get released? I don't dare even guess.

 

[Flabagast]

Sooooo....

Any guesses when we might be seeing this get released? I don't dare even guess.

in three years at minimum

 

[Flutta]

I like this side of CDPR. They want to be more transparent on what their teams are up to and the different projects they are working on. This is how you communicate with your fans. PS studios should learn a thing or two from this.

 

[RoboFu]

They need to make the world smaller but more varied.