The upcoming The Witcher 4 is going to be tectonic for CD Projekt Red, as an analyst believes it's going to cost the company the bones of one billion dollars. He estimates the total cost of the fantasy sequel will be around 10-times those of the threequel.
Per a report from Mateus Chrzanowski of Noble Securities, via Strefa Inwestorow (machine translated) and Clawsome Gamer, The Witcher 4's total budget is estimated to be (at the current conversion rate) in the realm of $778.9 million US dollars, a jump on every other release CD Projekt has shipped to date. But while the development costs alone are substantial, they aren't all that'll be impacting the bottom line.
Rather, the press and marketing might cost the same as production. Chrzanowski believes the next mainline Witcher game will run CD Projekt around $389 million to develop. This comes from increased costs, a larger team, higher ambitions for the game itself, and all sorts of other budgetary concerns.
Support around the launch – public events, big reveals, social media campaigns and such – is likely to come in for about the same amount, Chranowski believes. Similar to the actual production of the game, it's easy to believe these numbers when you consider having to pay for prime spots at industry-leading showcases like The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest, the labor in creating those trailers, and then travelling around for months of interviews.
This is the same company that got Keanu Reeves involved to both be a character in Cyberpunk 2077 and assist in the pre-release buzz. Hollywood legends aren't cheap in any capacity, and it's safe to assume the studio hopes to make this a trend. For comparison's sake, The Witcher 3 cost something in the region of $81 million all in, and Cyberpunk's came in at $400 million, accounting for the whole release.
The Witcher 4 is looking like it'll be a behemoth, but the franchise is now much bigger with the Netflix show and the gradual rise of CD Projekt itself. We possibly haven't seen the last of The Wild Hunt either, as Chrzanowski predicts another DLC this year. It could be a big year for Geralt, all to prepare for his grandest chapter yet.
