Summary
The Witcher 4will be “better, bigger, greater” than its predecessor, a senior CD Projekt Red official has said. This remark was offered as part of a wider overview of the company’s approach to the upcoming game’s development, which also elaborated on CDPR’s decision to use Unreal Engine 5 for the nextThe Witchergame.
Project Polaris, unofficially dubbedThe Witcher 4, was first confirmed to be in pre-production in March 2022. CDPR later revealed that thefourth mainlineThe Witchergame entered full-scale productionas of November 2024.
Although precious little has been revealed aboutProject Polarisso far, CDPR VP of Technology Charles Tremblay has recently shared a few new tidbits about the upcoming title. Speaking toEurogamer, the industry veteran said thatProject Polariswill be “better, bigger, greater” than bothThe Witcher 3andCyberpunk 2077. This statement was meant to illustrate that CDPR is still as ambitious as ever when it comes to pushing the boundaries of big-budget RPGs, even though that pursuit proved to be expensive the last time around, contributing to thedisastrous launch ofCyberpunk 2077that cost the studio over $125 millionto fix.
CDPR Is Using a New Oversight Process for The Witcher 4
One of the ways in which CDPR istrying to ensure thatThe Witcher 4launch goes a lot smootheris by using a revised oversight process with more checks and guardrails. Tremblay is the central figure in the new setup, which involves him communicating with game directors across CDPR’s different teams during pre-production, reviewing their progress, and ultimately making recommendations to the company’s leadership about whether any given studio is ready to proceed to full-scale production. If the team is deemed not ready, its project gets delayed, which can result in longer pre-production phases than what CDPR historically practiced.
The Witcher 4 Uses Unreal Engine 5 Because CDPR Is No Longer a 1-Project Studio
Elsewhere during the interview, Tremblay touched upon the studio’s decision to move from its proprietary RED Engine to Unreal Engine 5 forThe Witcher 4. According to him, this was a purely practical move, rooted in a desire to transform CDPR from a single-project developer to one capable of making multiple games at once. Moving to Unreal Engine 5, which will also beutilized for theCyberpunk 2077sequel, aligns with this ambition, as Epic’s engine makes it easier to share technology and expertise between projects, Tremblay explained.
The second entry in theCyberpunkseries, code-namedProject Orion, is still in pre-production as of late 2024. The game is hence planned to hit the market afterThe Witcher 4, which itself is still without an official release window.
The Witcher
The Witcher is a 3D action RPG series developed by CD Projekt Red featuring the exploits of Geralt of Rivia. Steeped in fantasy, The Witcher series is based on the books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
