The Witcher franchise has never been bigger. Thanks to Netflix’s live-action show starring Henry Cavill, which debuted in 2019, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (released in 2015) saw a huge surge in players. So it’s no surprise that video game studio CD Projekt Red is hard at work on a bonafide sequel. But when will we actually get to play Witcher 4 (or whatever its official title might be)?
After focusing on the sci-fi debacle that was 2020’s Cyberpunk 2077 and then spending even more time fixing that game, CDPR is ready to reveal what’s next. To that end, on March 21, the company gave us our first official confirmation that Witcher 4 is on the way.
Here’s what CDPR revealed, along with everything else we know (or think we know) about Witcher 4.
When might The Witcher 4 be released?
The Witcher 3 took CDPR more than three-and-a-half years and $81 million to develop. It was created on the company’s proprietary REDengine 3 game engine, which has since been upgraded to REDengine 4 for Cyberpunk 2077.
CDPR announced in March 2022 that The Witcher 4 was officially in development. Little is known about the sequel so far. However, the studio did confirm they’d be switching to Unreal Engine 5 for the new game.
What will The Witcher 4 be about?
The Witcher 4 most likely will not pick up where Witcher 3 left off, nor is it likely to be called The Witcher 4. CDPR co-founder Marcin Iwinski said the company doesn’t intend to expand on Geralt’s story any further in a 2017 investor call.
“The Witcher was designed as a trilogy, and a trilogy cannot have a fourth part, can it?” he said. “We like this world a lot. We invested 15 years of our lives in it, and a lot of money. We’ll think about [making a new Witcher game] at some point.”
In other words, it’s more likely we’ll see a prequel or a spinoff instead of the fourth installment of Geralt’s story.
Will there be any returning characters in The Witcher 4?
The Witcher 3 most likely won’t be the last time fans see Geralt. Executive producer John Mamais told Polygon the magic-wielding swordsman would probably return in future installments of the franchise. But he won’t be the story’s protagonist.
“We might even include Geralt in later games potentially,” he said. “We just need to talk about it and figure out what we’re going to do next.”
We’ll have to wait to find out more specifics about the sequel to determine whether Geralt will appear as a side character or just for a brief cameo.
What consoles could The Witcher 4 be available on?
Considering the state of the console market, it makes sense for The Witcher 4 to be produced for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Depending on the development time and the timeline of work on consoles, that list may expand.
The Witcher 3 was also released for PC at launch, like every game it has ever released, so there’s nothing to suggest The Witcher 4 will be any different.
Nintendo ported The Witcher 3 to the Switch in October 2019, so there’s hope that CDPR’s future games will also be released for Nintendo consoles.
The Witcher 4 is currently in development.
