A new Witcher game is in development at CD Projekt Red, the studio responsible for the Witcher trilogy and spin-offs such as Gwentbut details about the next installment in the fantasy video game series are scarce. But we do know the game, which is being developed under the codename Pole Starwill herald a “new saga” for the Witcher brand.
“We aim to release two more Witcher games after launch Pole Star“, creating a new AAA RPG trilogy,” CD Projekt Red said in 2022.
CD Projekt Red is moving away from using its in-house REDengine, the technology that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings And The Witcher 3: Wild Huntand will instead use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. CD Projekt and Epic announced a “multi-year strategic partnership” in March 2022, and as part of that agreement, developers from CD Projekt Red will work with Epic “with the primary goal of adapting (Unreal Engine) for open-world experiences.” Based on that language, the next Witcher game will be another open-world adventure.
CD Projekt has yet to announce a final title, gameplay details, or a release date for the fourth mainline installment in The Witcher. We don’t know what the story will be or what characters will be in it. Here’s everything we know Doing Discover everything about the new Witcher saga.
The School of the Lynx
The only very visible clue CD Projekt Red has given about its new Witcher saga is an artwork of a medallion buried in the snow. Originally interpreted by some as a reference to the School of the Cat from Witcher lore, CD Projekt Red’s Director of Worldwide Communications Robert Malinowski clarified Eurogamer after the project revealed that the medallion was made to resemble a lynx. Granted, a lynx is a genus inside the cat family, but The Witcher book series and games do not feature a canonical School of the Lynx. (Geralt is, of course, a witcher from the School of the Wolf.)
However, much speculation has pointed towards Ciri from the Witcher series, who was given a cat medallion back by Witcher-killing bounty hunter Leo Bonhart (and wore it herself), and who will star in the new Witcher saga, thanks to the whole cat/lynx association.
It’s (probably) not an Epic Games Store exclusive
CD Projekt Red and Epic Games are enjoying a “multi-year strategic partnership,” the companies said, but that doesn’t mean the next Witcher video game will be exclusive to Epic Games’ digital storefront. While Epic has invested millions into securing Epic Games Store-exclusive games, that kind of arrangement doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the next Witcher. Or, at the very least, CD Projekt wants to downplay the possibility that there is any form of exclusivity going on. After all, CD Projekt has its own games storefront, GOG.com, and has enjoyed multiplatform success over the past decade.
It’s (probably) not called The Witcher 4
CD Projekt Red’s Marcin Iwinski told Polygon back in 2013 that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (and the two expansions) marked the end of Geralt’s trilogy. And after the new Witcher game was announced, CD Projekt Global PR Director Radek Grabowski stressed on Twitter“What we did NOT announce today (is a) game called The Witcher 4.”
Fans and members of the media will likely continue to describe the new game as The Witcher 4 anyway, because that’s an easy shorthand until CD Projekt Red gives us a proper title for the project. Even CDPR chief strategy officer Adam Kiciński said in passing referred to the game as The Witcher 4 in 2023 during an earnings callwhich the developer later called a “slip of the tongue.”
It’s not just “The Witcher 3 in a new guise”
At least that’s what CD Projekt Red says. Back in March 2024, when the new Witcher game was still in pre-production, CDPR’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said during a Q&A about the profit figures that the developer “is trying to push new boundaries and explore new territories.”
“I guess what I’m saying is you shouldn’t expect that…The Witcher 3 “in a new guise,” Nowakowski said. “Of course, we’re building on what we’ve done before and what we’ve learned, but we’re going to add new gameplay elements and new mechanics that you haven’t seen in our previous games. I would say — doing things like that is always a risk; it’s not just repeating what’s been done before.”
The new Witcher game has no release date yet
Considering CD Projekt Red’s development history, it’s pretty safe to predict that we won’t be getting our hands on the new Witcher saga anytime soon. The final game in the franchise, The Witcher 3: Wild Huntentered development in the summer of 2011, but wasn’t officially announced until two years later. And the final game didn’t ship until May 2015. The studio’s most recent game, Cyberpunk2077was first announced in 2012, and it took a whopping eight years to finally release (and it wasn’t in the best of shape, either).
Suffice it to say, the next Witcher game is likely years away. CD Projekt Red will not only be taking its time building its new saga, but will almost certainly be spending extra time polishing and bug-squashing its successor to the Witcher trilogy, because it simply cannot repeat the mistakes it made with Cyberpunk2077.
CDPR’s joint CEO Adam Badowski said Reuters in January 2024 that the company expected to have “around 400 people working on the project” by mid-year, so development on the next Witcher game is certainly moving forward.
What we think we know
Based on the events of The Witcher 3 and the many choice-based endings, good and bad, there’s plenty to speculate about the new direction of the series in the wake of Geralt’s story. If you want to read more about the possibilities, here’s a look at where The Witcher could go next Wild Hunt.