CD Projekt Red is already hard at work to give us the next The Witcher title. We already know that the studio is developing the project as early as they can and with hundreds putting in the work, we might just see the game's release earlier than expected.
The Witcher 4
The fantasy RPG's latest title has received praise from most of the people who played it, saying that the game's mechanics are amazing and that the narrative was rich in lore. After all, it was based on an established universe from Andrzej Sapkowski's book series.
Other than the announcement of the whopping $750 million the studio earned from Cyberpunk 2077, the earnings call also revealed that there are 403 people already working on Project Polaris, also known as The Witcher 4.
According to Kotaku, the number of people who have been assigned to the game makes up about two-thirds of the studio's entire workforce, so it's safe to say that CD Projekt Red is pouring a lot into the development of the game.
The company's co-CEO Adam Bodowski already stated their intentions of having hundreds of people working on the game around the time Phantom Liberty was released, so fans are happy to see that the executive is making good on that promise.
CDPR is already looking into the use of AI for development, which could mean that the process might be fast-tracked with the help of the technology, but it was also mentioned that when it comes to writing and voice acting, "there's just a gigantic, really long way to go."
Given that the studio provided an ambitious timetable for its upcoming The Witcher titles, which is a six-year period, it makes sense that they are working on it as early as they can. All we can do is hope for is that the company will be able to do so in such a relatively short time.
For comparison, the first-ever Witcher title was released back in 2007, which was followed by the sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, in 2011. The release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt also saw a four-year gap with its 2015 release.
That's three games in an eight-year period. Since Project Polaris or The Witcher 4 will be kicking off a trilogy, that puts three years in between each title. With the latest advancements in ga,e development, it's quite possible that the studio could pull it off.
Rushing Could Lead to Another Bad Release
It would be a bad idea for the company to rush the release of the upcoming The Witcher title, or for fans to ask the studio to develop it as fast as they can. We have already seen what that can do to an initial release, such as the disastrous introduction of Cyberpunk 2077.
No worries, CD Projekt Red already promised that The Witcher 4 will not fall into the same fate. One of the reasons why the sci-fi dystopian game was a buggy mess was because CDPR only conducted console tests at the latter stages of development, as per Game Rant.
That won't be the case for Project Polaris, and all the following titles after it. CDPR says that it will be more inclusive of other platforms, and that it had already learned its lesson about the game release they worked so hard to redeem.
