Upon Cyberpunk 2077 release in September, CD Projekt Red will begin development on a new Witcher game that will not be a direct sequel. Players will get to go back to the world of the Witcher in the next few years.

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CD Projekt Red Confirms Work On A New Witcher Game

Polish gaming powerhouse CD Projekt confirmed that it has no plans of sitting idle after finishing work on its magnum opus and the year’s most anticipated game, Cyberpunk 2077. In an interview with journalists, CD Projekt president Adam Kiciński announced that the company will begin work on the next chapter in The Witcher franchise. Kiciński wouldn’t take names or call the game “The Witcher 4,” but simply that the game will be set in the fictional universe by Andrzej Sapkowski. Kiciński stated that a small team within CDPR will be tasked with preparatory work on this game, while larger teams will focus on DLCs and content additions for Cyberpunk 2077 over an extended period of time.

CD PROJEKT Red also explained that all of its upcoming games are going to take place in either the world of The Witcher or Cyberpunk. He all but outright stating it would be a new Witcher game. It will be a single-player game, which a small team will begin development on while other teams work on multiplayer and other additions for Cyberpunk 2077. CD PROJEKT Red estimates it will take around four years to develop. According to Eurogamer.pl, this game will not be called The Witcher 4.

This announcement isn’t too surprising, as CD PROJEKT has previously talked about how The Witcher and Cyberpunk were equally important IPs moving forward, as the company aims to go into “dual-franchise” mode. Recently, CD PROJEKT Red explained that it had strengthened its relationship with Andrej Sapkowski, the author of The Witcher books the games build on. Kiciński further explained that “You could risk saying that there was a 180-degree turn and we cemented our relationship with Mr. Sapkowski, not only on paper. We work together.”

Kiciński added that all current and future CDPR games are set to be based in either the worlds of Cyberpunk or The Witcher. Though naturally, if for some reason Cyberpunk 2077 was to bomb (and I don’t think any of us expect it to), that could change. Whatever we’ve seen of the game so far has looked pretty darn good, and we expect to see more of it still before the game’s release in September.

The Witcher is kind of a big deal right now, basically. So it makes sense that CD Projekt Red would come back for more – despite kind of wrapping up the story of the witcher of the series’ title, Geralt of Rivia, at the end of Wild Hunt’s DLC expansion, Blood and Wine. What the studio won’t be doing, though, is cracking on with whatever the next Witcher game is before it has Cyberpunk 2077 finished and out the door.

CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 has been a long time coming, having been announced in May 2012 and finally releasing on September 17 this year, after a few notable delays. It’s a huge game, with an awesome amount of hype around it, and massive expectations on its shoulders. Hopefully it delivers on most of what it’s been promising for several years now. CD Projekt Red has skyrocketed to become the second-most valuable game company in Europe, now worth over $8 billion. This is due in part to the relatively unexpected and explosive popularity of the Netflix original television show, The Witcher, which not only found success with TV audiences but also drove an influx of new interest towards the games. Additionally, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was recently ported to the Nintendo Switch and has received popular updates including cross-platform cloud saves and graphical tweaks. Experiences such as the ones developed by CD Projekt Red are few and far between. The studio painstakingly constructs massive worlds brimming with deep, interconnected stories. The development cycles they undertake are not for the faint of heart, Cyberpunk 2077 being a prime example, but their games showcase just how much effort the company invests in their craft and their fans. CD Projekt Red doesn’t seem to be giving up any time soon, and players can likely look forward to a new, next-gen The Witcher game in the future.