During CD Projekt RED's annual earnings call, The Witcher 4 (codenamed Polaris) came up several times, albeit as no surprise. New Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski told investors (and any fans that might be listening, of course) that they can expect The Witcher 4 to go beyond simply retreading the massive success of the third installment thanks to the addition of new gameplay features and mechanics.
When it comes to the risks of innovative elements – making a new game is always a creative risk, especially since we’re trying to push new boundaries and explore new fields; that’s something we haven’t actually done before. This is a pretty broad paintbrush stroke, for sure, but I cannot go into too much detail without actually talking about the game per se. I guess what I’m saying is that you should not be expecting “The Witcher 3 in new clothing” of sorts; of course we’re building on the shoulders of what came before and on what we’ve learned, but we will be adding new gameplay elements and new mechanics that you have not seen in our previous games. I’d say – doing such things is always a risk; it’s not just repeating what was done before.
Of course, it would have been hard to imagine CD Projekt RED simply repurposing The Witcher 3 more than a decade later, especially after they mentioned their goal to surpass current RPGs and provide a more intense combination of gameplay and story. Still, it's always good to hear explicit confirmation. As to what they might be, it's anyone's guess - perhaps the game will be more of a world simulation than previous entries.
The Witcher 4 is still in pre-production and will only enter production later this year. While there are over 400 developers already on it, we might be in for a fairly long wait. Investors also tried to gauge that by mentioning the industry average of 2-3 years for the production phase, but Michał Nowakowski wouldn't budge, replying that it's not the time to discuss any release plans yet. If we had to guess, we'd put the game's launch window to late 2027 at the earliest.
In other CD Projekt RED news, the studio recently confirmed it's against microtransactions in single player games. As far as we know, The Witcher 4 (unlike the spin-off codenamed Sirius in development at Molasses Flood) is a single player-only game, so it shouldn't have any microtransactions.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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