The Witcher 4 is finally going full steam on development

The sequel to one of the best games ever, The Witcher 3, is picking up the pace according to developer CD Projekt Red.

The Witcher 4 has entered full-scale production, which means the team size has drastically increased to ramp-up the pace of development now the game’s direction is cemented.

“I’m thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered the full-scale production phase,” game director Sebastian Kalemba posted on X.

“With new challenges just around the corner, it’s the talented and hard-working people who make me believe we can together make the upcoming Witcher Saga a remarkable experience. No stopping now! Stay tuned for what’s on the other side of the coin!”

Project Polaris is the internal name for The Witcher 4 (title not confirmed), and is one four major known projects in the works over at CD Projekt Red. The others are the Cyberpunk 2077 follow-up, another Witcher game and a new title, currently under the code name Hadar.

400 people are estimated to be working on The Witcher 4 at the moment, which will mark the beginning of a fresh Witcher saga.

The announcement was accompanied by an image of a stack of coins bearing detailed markings. But if you can glean any lore implications from them, your Witcher knowledge is a lot better than ours.

The bad news is this doesn’t really tell us a whole lot about when The Witcher 4 will actually be released. We have heard Cyberpunk 2077’s development didn’t fully start until after CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone expansion in 2015.

Cyberpunk 2077 was released five years later in late 2020. And even then, most would argue it was released too early.

Does this mean, big gulp, we could be waiting until 2030 for The Witcher 4? It could, but it’s too depressing to think about for too long.

CD Projekt Red is also known to be working on a remake of the first The Witcher game, released in 2007. It was announced in 2022, but we have heard relatively little about it since. It’s in development at Fool’s Theory, a Polish developer best known for making the fairly well-regarded, if not hugely successful, 2024 RPG The Thaumaturge.

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