The Witcher 4 About to Enter ‘Full-Fledged’ Production Soon, CD Projekt Red Confirms

The fourth Witcher game, codenamed Project Polaris, is set to enter production soon, developer CD Projekt Red confirmed Wednesday. In a statement detailing its earnings in the first half of the financial year, the studio said it was about to conclude pre-production on the title. The Witcher 4 was first announced by CD Projekt Red in 2022 and later confirmed to be the first in a new trilogy of The Witcher games.

The Witcher 4 Set to Enter Production

CD Projekt Red is set to begin the full-fledged production phase of Project Polaris, the company said in its press statement outlining its financial results for H1 2024. “Work on Polaris is progressing – its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the preproduction phase,” Michał Nowakowski, CD Projekt Red joint CEO, said.

The studio did not provide any other details about The Witcher 4, but did confirm it was “laying the groundwork” for Project Orion – the next game set in the Cyberpunk universe.

Project Polaris was first announced in March 2022, with the studio confirming the game would be built in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. Later that year, CD Projekt Red revealed that Polaris would be the beginning of a new Witcher saga — the first instalment in a new trilogy, with the studio aiming to deliver all three games within a six-year period following the launch of The Witcher 4.

What We Know About the Witcher 4

The Witcher 4 is confirmed to be a story-driven open-world RPG, “built on the legacy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.” CD Projekt is also producing two other Witcher titles outside the new trilogy — a multiplayer focussed Witcher game, dubbed Project Sirius, and “Canis Majoris,” a story-driven open-world title confirmed to be a full Unreal Engine 5-remake of the first Witcher game.

In an earlier earnings report delivered in November 2023, CD Projekt Red confirmed that nearly half of the studio — which makes up for over 300 developers — was working on The Witcher 4. The company, however, has not announced a release timeline for the game.

More recently, the voice actor for Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist in the first three games, claimed that the character would feature in The Witcher 4, but not in a central role. “The Witcher 4 has been announced. I can’t say anything about it,” Doug Cockle said in an interview earlier this month. “What we know is that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don’t know how much. And the game won’t focus on Geralt, so it’s not about him this time.”