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 Polish video game studio CD Projekt Red is hard at work on a bonafide sequel. But when will we actually get to play The Witcher 4 (or whatever its official title might be), and what else do we know about it?
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, 2022, the company gave us our first official confirmation that Witcher 4 — codenamed Polaris — is on the way.
When is The Witcher 4 release window?
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.
With that in mind, it’s likely The Witcher 4 won’t be available until at least 2025.
One important thing to note is that Sebastian Kalemba, who worked as lead animator on The Witcher 3, will direct The Witcher 4. Kalemba eventually became CDPR’s head of animation.
“Since joining CD Projekt Red, I believe nothing is impossible, and raising the bar, telling emotional stories, and creating worlds is what we’re here for,” Kalemba said.
What is The Witcher 4 story?
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 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 are The Witcher 4 platforms?
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 in the series, so there’s nothing to suggest The Witcher 4 will be any different.
The Witcher 3 was ported to the Nintendo Switch in October 2019, so there’s hope that CDPR’s future games will also be released for Nintendo consoles. Though, it’s likely The Witcher 4 won’t launch for Switch, given its expected release window.
The Witcher 4 is currently in development.
