Witcher 4 is officially in development. I agree. As you can see, CD Projekt RED has revealed a suite of Witcher games in active development. His one of them, codenamed Polaris, has been described as the franchise’s next mainline game. For all intents and purposes, this is The Witcher 4. For now, I will mention it.
Back in March 2022, developer CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 4 in a blog post. Alongside other Witcher games and some Cyberpunk 2077 projects, the company has revealed that Polaris (The Witcher 4) will be part of an all-new story. This saga is a trilogy of games starting with Polaris. This is good news for fans of The Witcher, but so far we know very little about what this new game set will bring.
So far, CD Projekt RED has revealed few details about The Witcher 4. We’ll likely hear more as development progresses. Here’s what we know about The Witcher 4 so far.
The Witcher 4: Getting to the point
- what is that? The next mainline The Witcher game
- When can we play? to be decided
- What can I play on? to be decided
The Witcher 4: Release Date and Platforms
Let’s start by calming down the excitement. CD Projekt RED has announced that The Witcher 4 is in active development. blog post (opens in new tab) “There are no further details regarding the release date.”
Now, to put it in perspective, the original Cyberpunk 2077 trailer released (opens in new tab) It was released seven years before the game actually came out. To bring back a little hope to the situation, CD Projekt RED The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Title Reveal Trailer (opens in new tab) It’s only been two years since The Witcher 3 was released.
That means it could be years away from The Witcher 4’s release. Please set the calendar to 2024 at the earliest. Probably longer than that.
Platforms for The Witcher 4 haven’t been confirmed either, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. A PC release is almost certain.
What we do know is that The Witcher 4 will be the first in a trilogy. I was.
Polaris, the codename for the next game in The Witcher series, recently announced it was in development. This is the beginning of a new story. After Polaris, we aim to release two more Witcher games and create a new AAA RPG trilogy. pic.twitter.com/898Ez6Yk79October 4, 2022
The Witcher 4: Story and setting
The Witcher game series spoilers
As I said above, there are very few details available about The Witcher 4. The official blog post only confirms it’s in development and built with Unreal Engine 5. Games are involved.
First of all, it’s not really The Witcher 4.
“The first three ‘Witchers’ were by definition a trilogy, so we couldn’t name the next game ‘The Witcher 4,'” Kiciński said. interview“Of course, this does not mean leaving the Witcher world.”
At the end of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, monster hunter Geralt was alive and well. At least he was alive. But his story his arc ended and Wild his hunt ended. That doesn’t mean he won’t be back in this new Witcher game, but he’s probably not the main character.
The developer said the same thing in 2013: “We’re not killing or leaving the world, but we want this game to be the finale in a big way,” executive producer John Mamais said. polygon (opens in new tab)“There’s even the possibility of including Geralt in future games. We just need to discuss it and decide what to do next.”
Perhaps we’ll see the reins passed to Ciri if it’s officially decided she survived The Witcher 3. After all, Netflix is developing a series set long before the events of the books. increase. Blood Origin is a prequel set 1,000 years before the events of The Witcher.
The confirmation that the medallion shown in the game’s announcement image is a lynx certainly suggests that the game is going in a new direction.
The Witcher book author Andrzej Sapkowski has struck a new deal with the company to “further cement the relationship.” Studios are free to draw from his short stories and novels. (If you want to catch up, here’s how to read the Witcher books in order.)
The Witcher 4: News and Rumors
Polaris, and a brand new trilogy
Early October 2022, CD Projekt RED announces a slew of new titles Via Twitter (opens in new tab), including the new Witcher trilogy. Polaris (what we call The Witcher 4) begins a new story that spans over six years since its original release. This is obviously a big undertaking, so we need to see if it pays off.
Reconfirm the beginning of a new story
CD Projekt RED has reconfirmed that The Witcher 4 will kick off the saga. The number of games included has not been confirmed, but CEO Adam Kiciński released the following statement: Recent earnings report (opens in new tab).
“We said we have a new saga. Of course, now we are pre-making the first game of this saga. But we are thinking of multiple games. The first saga will be three games. So now we’re thinking about multiple games…but we’re in pre-production on the first game of the second Witcher saga.
First riddle solved: the medallion is a lynx
Following the detailed announcement that The Witcher 4 is in development, CD Projekt Red has spoken out to address one point of fan speculation: the medallion shown in the announcement image. It turns out to be a lynx, suggesting they’ve created an entirely new Witcher school for the game.
“You can confirm that the medallion is actually in the shape of a lynx,” said global communications director Robert Malinowski. euro gamer (opens in new tab).
However, while Lynx’s school does not appear in official witcher fiction, there are stories about the school elsewhere on the Internet. The Witcher Fan Fiction Wiki (opens in new tab)According to the fan wiki, the School of the Lynx is formed after the School of the Wolf disbanded. The school, founded by surviving members, including Geralt, eventually leaves their hometown and explores the Western Continent.
Keep in mind, though, that this is all fanfiction, so it doesn’t resemble the story CD Projekt is working on for a new RPG. Indeed, the announcement speaks of a “new story” that hints at intentions moving forward.
publication
Considering most game announcements come with flashy trailers and big new websites, The Witcher 4 news is relatively low-key.CD Projekt RED blog post (opens in new tab) Includes 1 key art and a touch of detail about one of the most anticipated RPGs in gaming history.
“We are delighted to announce that the next installment of The Witcher series of video games is currently in development and will begin a new story for the franchise,” the developer wrote.
This post doesn’t go into detail about the game’s release date or the team’s development status, but it does include one major detail.
Since The Witcher 2, the team has used REDengine in every game. Capable of supporting a gorgeous open world, Polish developers have spent years expanding its capabilities.
There was a huge leap in quality from The Witcher 2 to The Witcher 3, with technology now capable of handling much larger and denser worlds. The tech took another leap in Cyberpunk 2077. The world may have felt more fringed than the open plains and winding forests of The Witcher 3, but Night City was a dense city with an enormous amount of activity spread across vertical apartment blocks. .
Still, Cyberpunk was plagued with significant technical issues at launch, and that’s probably why CD Projekt RED left behind its own engine in favor of industry-standard Unreal Engine 5. did.
“We are moving from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5,” CD Projekt wrote in a blog post. Potential future versions of Unreal Engine (if relevant). We work closely with the developers at Epic Games, with the primary goal of tuning the engine for an open world experience. ”
Before seeing games for PlayStation 5, I was running the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo on the console. Epic Games were keen to promote this new version of the engine as technology for a new generation of consoles. The fact that The Witcher 4 will be built with this tech is something Epic can roar about, and Cyberpunk-grilled Witcher fans can take comfort in.
Of course, a game engine is just a set of tools, not what makes a game good or bad. Also, many people at CD Projekt RED have used his Unreal Engine tech throughout their career, but moving the entire studio to another suite of tools could show up in the final game. It’s a production issue.
Watch the video here: The Witcher 4: Everything we know so far
