CD Projekt Red has a couple of games in development right now named Project Polaris, Project Orion, Project Sirius, and Project Hadar. Out of all the in-development games, Project Polaris seems to be taking most of the studio's resources.
Project Polaris AKA The Witcher 4
Development teams are busier than ever as the studio takes on multiple projects at once, but unlike every other listed codename, Polaris is getting all the attention with 407 developers currently working on it. That means that we will be seeing a new Witcher game soon enough.
There are currently 630 developers employed by CD Projekt Red right now according to the provided Q1 2024 earnings report by the company, just to provide context as to how significant 407 developers working on one title are.
If that's not exciting enough, reports say that the upcoming title will be the first of a trilogy. Although it's technically the fourth game in the franchise, it will be considered the first game in the multi-game series and will be the "beginning of a new saga."
With a trilogy set to happen, we can also expect The Witcher 5 and 6 in the coming years. That might be a while, however, considering that the time gap between the upcoming game and the latest release is growing longer since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released in 2015.
According to GamesRadar, Project Polaris will be released on Unreal Engine 5 instead of Red Engine, which was used for the studio's three latest releases such as The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Fans are already debating about one big change that could come with the fourth title, particularly the playable main character. Speculations say that instead of Geralt, plates will not get to be Ciri, which could mean a new addition to fighting mechanics considering her abilities.
It would definitely be interesting considering the multiple endings The Witcher 3 has. To fans, the canon ending is the one where Geralt gets to retire and Ciri becomes a Witcher. It would definitely explain the change of protagonist should it happen.
Project Orion AKA the Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel
The second biggest project being worked on is Project Orion with 56 developers. It's exponentially less, but it shows that Orion is well underway, although it also means that the sequel will come a lot later than the next Witcher game.
The Q1 2024 earnings report also showed something else interesting. On February 29th, there are 17 developers still working on Cyberpunk 2077. However, as of April 30th, there are no assigned developers anymore. It means that after four years of disasters and bug fixes, the game is finally finished.
The sci-fi dystopian game did not have the best release. PC gamers said that the game had a lot of bugs that made the game hard to play. It was even worse for console players, where game-breaking bugs prompted many to refund the game. Sony even removed Cyberpunk 2077 from its store for a while.
