The Witcher 4 – premiere, platforms, history. What we know and would like to see at CD Projekt Red

Over 25 million copies sold and countless awards for “Game of the Year” and “Best RPG” make The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt the top and best title in CD Projekt Red’s collection .

It’s no wonder, then, that the creation of the next installment in the series is inevitable .

After the Polish developer’s unsuccessful adventure with the world of cyberpunk, he will want to return to safe waters and create another installment of the acclaimed series.

We decided to check out what we already know about the (alleged) Witcher 4 and speculate a bit about what we might get.

 

The Witcher is not necessarily 4?

The next installment of the “Witcher” saga from CD Projekt Red 4 does not need to be numbered. It is very likely that the game will receive a specific subtitle, but without numbering.

Why? CD Projekt RED, since the debut of the first part of the series, has planned The Witcher as a trilogy (like Mass Effect).

This, as we well know, creates a coherent story that has already been sealed by the creators.

Adam Kisinski, CEO of CD Projekt Red, admitted in an interview that it is unlikely that the next game in the series will be titled “The Witcher 4”.

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The first three Witcher games were a trilogy by definition, so we could not call the next The Witcher 4. Of course, this does not mean that we will leave the world of The Witcher – Adam Kiesinski.

The Witcher 4 – story and characters

Breaking the classic punctuation may mean not only a marketing ploy, but also a desire to clearly break with previous stories.

As an example, let’s again use the Mass Effect series from Bioware. So the new Witcher may be to CD Projekt RED’s series what Andromeda was to the Canadian studio’s space epic.

This, in turn, is related to the fact that the famous monster slayer – Geralt of Rivia, will not necessarily return as the main protagonist for the next part of the cycle .

Who can replace him? Well, a certain hint was given to us by representatives of CD Projekt Red, more precisely – Jakub Szamałek – the main scriptwriter of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , who in one of the interviews suggested that Ciri could be the main character in the next game in the series .

I regret that we were unable to provide more of Siri’s past. She has an incredibly rich and complex personality. For obvious reasons, she’s gone (Ciri ed.) for nearly two-thirds of the game, and she just doesn’t have as much screen time as we’d like. But oh well, maybe we’ll come back to him in the future – Jakub Szamałek.

Of course, it’s also possible to bring Geralt back and tell his story before the trilogy, but that’s somewhat unlikely. CD Projekt Red has repeatedly emphasized that while it has great respect for Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, it prefers to tell his own stories.

We have always admired the work of Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski, and he is a huge inspiration to the CD Projekt Red team” – Adam Kiesinski.

The system used in Cyberpunk 2077 can substitute for a predetermined hero , so we get a slightly defined character (“V”), which we can freely shape and develop. Many gamers who want to create their own Witcher will certainly be satisfied with such solutions.

 

Safe sequel or risky prequel, or maybe vice versa?

Realize that CD Projekt Red is already failing Cyberpunk 2077 in the context of the upcoming Witcher, and that means the Polish studio may be less willing to experiment .

We don’t want to go into the details of the story yet, so as not to spoil the fun for anyone who hasn’t finished The Witcher 3 yet. Instead, we’ll focus on history on a “macro” scale.

It seems safer for CD Projekt Red to continue the series with Geralt in the lead role.

We know very well that a popular and beloved protagonist is often the basis for success. The most famous character of The Witcher is already a well-known character from the gaming world such as: Master Chief, Kratos from God of War , or Lara Croft. Replacing it can be very difficult.

 

The best solution seems to be to go back in time and present players with a story several hundred years before the events of the previous trilogy .

It was a period when monsters were extremely common and wizard schools were fully operational.

This will automatically open up many possibilities for both developers and players – from freely creating your own mage (including appearance, school and abilities) to introducing many new types of monsters and, accordingly, ways to fight them.

Not to mention the fact that it will allow us to better understand the history of the Witcher universe, which has not yet been explored.

The Witcher 4 as an MMO?

Another The Witcher as an online game or a game-as-a-service? Such rumors appeared quite often after the release of the third Witcher.

At present, we can say with certainty that there is not the slightest chance of that.

Representatives of CD Projekt Red are very specific in this matter, who, after the fiasco with the online mode of Cyberpunk 2077, stated that “this is not the way” and in the future they want to focus primarily on high-quality single-games, which will only be enriched by a network Elements.

When it comes to the Internet, we are changing our approach, and we definitely want to have the Internet in our future games, but step by step. So we’re working on specific features that will improve the single player games, but we don’t want to release the next game as a big online experience. Therefore, we will enrich our individual productions with online elements – Adam Kisinski.

The Witcher is the best “Monster Hunter” movie

What can these “network elements” manifest as? Let’s do some speculation.

On the occasion of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft showed you how to monetize and enrich your title in a fun and non-invasive way. The latest installment in the series is a single-player blockbuster production.

It does not provide any possibility of cooperation or competition over the network.

However, thanks to frequent updates, seasonal events and the in-house store (mainly with unique mounts and weapons), players still spend time with them and the virtual world feels more “alive”.

The Witcher 4 could easily follow a similar path.

 

The craziest idea that comes to mind is to create a co-op mode that allows two players to perform certain types of missions together, such as hunting monsters.

On the one hand, this will not disturb the main core of the production – that is, the single player experience, on the other hand, it will allow CD Projekt Red as an important network element for its work.

The Witcher 4 with Monster Hunter mode? I will order!

The Witcher 4 – platforms

After the failure of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, we can be sure that the next game from the Polish studio will not make it to eighth-generation hardware.

Thus, the target platforms for The Witcher 4 will be Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC .

Nintendo Switch owners can also forget about the next adventures of The Witcher, unless the Japanese manufacturer manages to release Nintendo Switch Pro, which has been speculated for months.

The Witcher 4 – when will the premiere take place?

 

The Witcher 4 is in development – we already know that for sure (although there’s probably only concept work).

In one of his recent interviews, Adam Kisinski revealed that parallel work on two AAA projects will begin next year.

One of them is a new game in the Witcher universe (the alleged Witcher 4). Perhaps the second one is related to Cyberpunk 2077 .

We are currently focused on our two franchises. Both have great potential, so one of our strategic goals is to start parallel work on AAA projects within our IPs, which is expected next year – Adam Kiciński

So when can we expect the next Witcher game to release? Of course, we can’t exactly answer this question yet.

However, given that work on the title will start next year, we can assume that in ideal conditions, The Witcher 4 will start around 2024-2025 .

Update – CD Projekt Red’s new The Witcher game is coming out later this year. What do we know about the “Golden Nekker Project”?

Although we will have to wait a long time for the next full installment of the Witcher series, as it turns out, this year we will be playing a completely new game from the universe .

As revealed by IGN, the Polish studio intends to release a game this year, which is internally referred to as “Golden Nekker” (“Golden Nekker”). What is this mysterious project?

According to information published by IGN, CD Projekt Red is a brand new game for us in the Witcher universe, which will be inspired by the famous card game “Gwent” .

Does this mean the return of “The Witcher Tales” and the continuation of the success of “War for the Throne”? Unfortunately not, “Złoty Nekker” will be a new, independent production.

CD Projekt Red’s Pawe Burza only assured us that “Golden Nekker” will offer players an ” addictive single player mode “.

This is not another game in the series of The Witcher Tales, but another game. Our goal is to provide an immersive single player experience for those who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent – Pawe Burza.

When can we expect the premiere of the hidden game called “Zloty Neker”? CD Projekt Red wants to release the game this year, while IGN predicts October 2022.

This means that the second half of this year promises to be very attractive for fans of the Witcher series.

Let us remind you that a remake of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for next-generation consoles – PS5 and Xbox Series X / S will also come out this year.

The Witcher 4 is officially in production! CD Projekt introduces the logo and announces important changes to the series

We didn’t expect it. Without any major announcement or presentation, CD Projekt has revealed that work on a new Witcher saga is already underway ! By the way, we also received the first promotional poster for the game, on which we can see the medallion of one of the Witcher schools.

Interestingly, it is not a symbol of the legendary wolf school to which Geralt of Rivia belonged. This may indicate that we will get a completely new hero in the next game in the Witcher series , which is probably the best solution for CD Projekt RED.

It is still not excluded that we will get a specific hero in general (something like the “V” from Cyberpunk 2077 ) and we will have more influence on his appearance, personality and decisions.

 

However, this is not the end of the interesting news. CD Projekt RED owners have reported that The Witcher 4 will be developed on Unreal Engine 5 , thanks to the establishment of a strategic collaboration with Epic Games.

This means that in its future projects, the studio will not use the proprietary REDengine technology known from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or Cyberpunk 2077 . Pawe Zawodny – CTO at CD Projekt RED, stated that moving to Unreal Engine 5 is one of the key elements of the company’s new strategy.

The change in the engine aims to make creating diverse open world games easier, faster, and more predictable.

In the case of the studio’s previous games, developing and preparing a REDengine for a specific title required significant resources and efforts. That is why it was very important for us to set the technology direction as quickly as possible for the next CD PROJEKT RED game. The collaboration we have created will increase the efficiency of the production process, as well as its predictability – Pawe Zawodny, CD Projekt RED.

It should be noted that CD Projekt RED will not only be a passive licensee of Unreal Engine 5.

Under the new collaboration with Epic Games, the Polish developer will be able to freely modify and change the engine to best suit its games.

We can only hope that we will soon receive the first specific details about The Witcher 4. However, we will probably have to wait at least 3-4 years for the release of the game.

The Witcher 4 is a single player game. Production has been running for nearly 4 years, and the premiere may be happening sooner than we think.

The next game in the Witcher series continues to be announced. Although the game will almost certainly not be called “The Witcher 4”, for now that’s the easiest way to describe it.

We learned that CD Projekt RED lead game director Jason Slama is keeping an eye on the new project. He is an experienced developer associated with the Polish studio for more than 7 years.

Previously worked with The Witcher 3 and Gwent. Interestingly, according to the information provided by the interested party himself on one of the portals, he has been working on a new project since June 2021, which is the new The Witcher. This means that production of the title has been going on for at least 10 months .

Moreover, it was reported that the pre-production of the new Witcher began 3-4 years ago, and concrete work on the game is currently underway.

Salama announces his desire for the team he leads to achieve a distinguished title. However, he stresses that this will only be possible in a healthy work environment devoid of what is called a crisis, i.e. the number of overtime hours.

I strive to create an amazing experience with an amazing team that can work in a healthy development environment. While it’s not easy to do both, I’ll do everything I can to make it happen – Jason Salameh.

Adam Kiesinski, the company’s president, also spoke about the new project of CD Projekt RED. First of all, he confirmed that The Witcher 4 will be a single player game .

So there is no question of “game as a service” or MMO. Kiciński also revealed that he was satisfied with how CD Projekt RED was serving REDenigne, and it was necessary to switch to a new technology.

REDengine has served us well over the years – it’s the technology backbone of The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. However, after a series of internal analyses, it became clear to us that we need to focus more on the technology side and make sure it’s core. in the game development process. Unreal Engine 5 and the associated support from Epic Games provides a platform for us to focus on creative work and issues beyond developing the engine itself – Adam Kiciński

The opportunities offered by Unreal Enigne 5 and its next release are to allow more teams to build games faster and use work time more efficiently.

The ability to quickly prepare new developers to work in CD Projekt RED is also important. The need to familiarize yourself with the new REDEngine and its capabilities certainly did not have a positive effect on adapting to the new environment. Unreal Engine is a more popular tool used by the biggest studios around the world.

From a technical point of view – the new engine will streamline the game development process by streamlining development work and allowing our developers to focus on iterative, systematic and innovative creation of immersive adventures. We will strive to adapt and improve its elements in terms of our creative assumptions.

Switching to Unreal Engine also opens up broader employment prospects for us, which is a clear advantage of our collaboration with Epic Games. We are looking for developers who want to join us and bring their ambitious ideas to life – Adam Kisinski.

All this information allows us to assume that the premiere of the fourth game in the Witcher series may happen sooner than we thought so far .

There is no chance the game will debut next year.

However, it is possible that RED’z will surprise us and set off on a new adventure in the world of The Witcher in the first half of 2025.

The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 – this is how the new game from the CD Projekt RED series might look like

We already know that the new game in the Witcher series will be developed on the Unreal Engine 5 graphics engine .

But what exactly does this mean, what could The Witcher 4 look like? During the Game Developers Conference 2022, the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 were presented.

From the creators of the Gears of War series – The Coalition studio. You can see what UE5 can do below.

However, that’s not all. Epic Games has also demonstrated the incredible flexibility of Unreal Engine 5, which allows it to create many unusual virtual worlds.

What the Witcher 4 could look like with an open world in Unreal Engine 5 is shown in the following material.

Epic Game and CD Projekt RED studio are excited about the collaboration and opportunities that UE5 will bring to the next game in the Witcher series. What the developers themselves think can be seen in the video posted to Twitter .

Soak in more information about why CDPROJEKTRED chose to use #UE5 to build new open-world games, including a new epic for The Witcher! ???? pic.twitter.com/IVKFKljwf7

— Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) April 5, 2022