CD Projekt’s The Witcher 4, aka Project Polaris, has officially entered “full-scale” production, with the vast majority of the studio development team now working on the upcoming game. As announced, around 400 developers are assigned to the project, which accounts for two-thirds of all development staff.
“I’m proud to confirm that several weeks ago, the Polaris team wrapped up preproduction and moved on to full-scale production – the most intensive phase of development,” Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO of CD Projekt revealed during a recent financial presentation (via IGN). “We are very pleased with our progress on this project, and I wish to thank the team for its dedication.”
For now, only a few tidbits about The Witcher 4 have been revealed, but they’re enough to set tongues wagging. For one thing, we know franchise protagonist Geralt will take a backseat in the adventure, with a new character set to be the focus. Early speculation is that Ciri will become the main Witcher in this adventure, as the canon ending of The Witcher 3 suggested as much – but we’ll have to wait to see what CD Projekt has in store.
Beyond this, we also know voice actor Doug Cockle will return to play Geralt, likely with a reduced role. We’ll likely learn more in 2025 and beyond, as development work progresses.
Read: The Witcher: Season 5 will conclude the Netflix series
Elsewhere in its latest financial presentation, CD Projekt also confirmed a range of other tidbits – for example, that Cyberpunk 2077 has overcome the odds to sell 30 million copies total. Phantom Liberty alone has sold 8 million units.
That’s an encouraging sign for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, which is currently being worked on by around 64 people. In addition to this group, there are also other development teams working on The Molasses Flood’s Witcher spin-off (42), and on “Project Hadar”, CD Projekt’s mystery new IP (18).
Based on the company’s financial reports, it’s clear the studio has made great strides over the last few years, recovering well from the disaster of Cyberpunk 2077‘s initial launch. Going forward, it aims to deliver a range of new projects, including highly-anticipated sequels, although it will likely be several years before we see the next big release from the studio.
In the meantime, we can expect to see a range of updates – and with some patience, we’ll also get more tangible updates on The Witcher 4, the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and everything else in the works at CD Projekt.
