Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, joint CEO of CD Projekt, Michał Nowakowski, talked about Cyberpunk 2077’s marketing cycle, which saw CD Projekt RED entering a prolonged final stretch of marketing with a blowout at E3 2019 with Keanu Reeves onstage, with the game’s release not coming until a year and a half later. That, incidentally, followed a trailer at E3 2018, not to mention a CGI announcement teaser all the way back in January of 2013.

With its future projects, however, the company intends to have shorter marketing cycles that last about a year, which is something that it has expressed in the past as well.

“To be honest, when we were kicking off the marketing campaign officially with pre-orders, which was the Keanu on stage [moment, at E3 in June 2019], the plan was actually to launch roughly one year later. It just didn’t really work. So we didn’t really plan for like a two-year campaign, and I still think that one year would really be fine [in terms of] time for a promotional campaign of that game.”

“[We] learned a lot of good practices from that experience: so announce the date when you’re like really, really sure of it,” he continued. “And now I think we have much better tools to be sure of that date, which we – on a smaller scale – proved to ourselves with Phantom Liberty.”

He added, “For a new game, we would still expect a slightly longer – but not two-year – lasting campaign.”

That said, even though full announcements will be made closer to release, Nowakowski says fans can still expect less formal info drops here and there, coming in the form of concept art, or even “some video assets, or something to whet the appetite of the fans”.

“Having said that, I want to stress: it doesn’t mean we would not tease or drop some cool assets before [a full reveal],” he explained. “Because the marketing campaign, slightly earlier before the launch of the game, that’s different than the actual, say, ‘mass attack’. Mass attack is when you announce the date, you start collecting the pre-orders and it really is that race from that point, that moment, to the moment you launch the game.”

“If I ask you, what do you know about The Witcher 4? The answer is not much, probably – yes, there’s theories and so on. But there’s nothing really specific,” he continued. So we want to drop the crumbs here and there so that people – and the media as well – can, you know, pick up on it and try to figure out what it is we’re trying to say this time. So that [is something] we can start doing a little bit earlier.”

CD Projekt recently announced that The Witcher 4 has entered full production, though it remains to be seen how long it’ll be before the game is ready to be shown off. As per the studio, the fantasy RPG will be bigger than The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Read more on that through here.

Speaking in a recent interview with Eurogamer, CD Projekt RED’s vice president of technology Charles Tremblay touched on the same, explaining that the studio’s current tech foundations – after having adopted Unreal Engine 5 as its main production toolset – will enable it to ensure that its next project is “better, bigger, greater” than The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. And of course, as you’d imagine, the studio also wants to ensure it avoids another disastrous launch like Cyberpunk 2077.

“I will not say it’s easy, but I think that we have some cool stuff going, and hopefully that will have some good showcase [of the technology],” Tremblay said. “The only thing I will say is that changing the tech for us does not change the fact that we always will be ambitious. And the next game we do will not be smaller, and it will not be worse. So it will be better, bigger, greater than The Witcher 3, it will be better than Cyberpunk – because for us, it’s unacceptable [to launch that way]. We don’t want to go back.

“Even if there will be some ‘sweaty moments’ and maybe even some bad stuff happening, still, I think that we will try everything we can to make it even more than what we achieved in the past years. So the technology should not be a blocker for us, basically.”

In terms of size, Cyberpunk 2077’s world was decidedly smaller than The Witcher 3’s, though with both games, CD Projekt RED crafted massive and dense play spaces that were packed full of enough content to keep players occupied for dozens upon dozens of hours, even without their expansions included. That the studio intends to do something similar with its next project doesn’t come as a massive surprise.

It will, however, be a while before we learn much more about The Witcher 4. Though CDPR might drop the odd crumb here and there, don’t expect it to be fully unveiled until it’s about a year or so away from release.

It has now crossed that milestone. CD Projekt revealed during its recent quarterly earnings call that Project Polaris – which is the codename under which the next Witcher is being developed – has now entered full production.

Game director Sebastian Kelamba wrote on Twitter, “I’m thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered the full-scale production phase! With new challenges just around the corner, it’s the talented and hard-working people who make me believe we can together make the upcoming Witcher Saga a remarkable experience. No stopping now! Stay tuned for what’s on the other side of the coin!”

CD Projekt says 400 people across the entirety of the company are involved with the development of The Witcher 4 (or whatever it ends up being called), which means it continues to be by far the biggest project in the works at CD Projekt RED right now.

Not much is known about Polaris yet, though it was previously confirmed by CD Projekt that it will be the first instalment in a new trilogy of Witcher games. Developed on Unreal Engine 5, the game will also see former series protagonist Geralt of Rivia returning, though not as the protagonist this time. Read more on that through here.

Meanwhile, the company has also announced updated sales figures for Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion, Phantom Liberty, both of which have continued to enjoy steady sales. Read more in that through here.

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) November 26, 2024

Great news that we can share with you: Polaris has entered the production phase! Kudos to everyone involved at @CDPROJEKTRED studio, fingers crossed for further developments! https://t.co/K8Ai7XM04B

— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) November 26, 2024

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) November 26, 2024

That’s as per CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz, who revealed in the company’s recent quarterly financial briefing that the next Witcher game, which has more than 400 people currently working on it, will soon exit pre-production and enter the full production phase.

“The Polaris team – working hard on the next game in the Witcher saga – made substantial progress, which will soon enable us to wrap up pre-production and take this project to the full production phase.”

Nielubowicz also touched on Orion, the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, which is still in early development at CD Projekt’s new Boston studio. 

“The past six months were also a busy time for our studio in Boston. There, a group of CD Projekt RED veterans, now assisted by freshly hired talented developers, is laying the groundwork for another Cyberpunk game- codenamed Orion.”

Earlier this month, actor Doug Cockle – who voiced protagonist Geralt of Rivia in previous Witcher titles – revealed that the character will return in the series’ upcoming next instalment, though not as the primary protagonist. Read more on that through here.

Unsurprisingly, that’s now been confirmed by Doug Cockle, the actor who has voiced Geralt in all the games so far- as has the (equally unsurprising) fact that though he isn’t the protagonist, Geralt is going to return nonetheless. Who is the series going to focus on going forward, then? That’s still very much unknown, even to Cockle (or so he says). 

“Witcher 4 has been announced,” he said in a video recently uploaded by YouTube channel Fall Damage (transcription via PC Gamer). “I can’t say anything about it. What we know is that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don’t know how much, and the game won’t focus on Geralt. So it’s not about him this time. We don’t know who it’s about. I’m excited to find out. I want to know! I have not seen any script yet—I mean, I couldn’t tell you if I did. This is the thing, so I could be lying through my teeth. But I’m not. Or am I?”

One would assume that Ciri – Geralt’s adoptive daughter, who was a key character in The Witcher 3, including having her own playable sections – will take up the protagonist’s mantle going forward, especially with Geralt also returning in some capacity. That is, however, pure speculation at this point. 

The Witcher 4 is currently the most advanced out of all of the projects that are currently in the works at CD Projekt RED, with over 400 people working on the fantasy RPG. Though it’s currently in pre-production, CDPR has said it intends to begin full production on the project this year itself.

Though production will begin this year, associate game director Paweł Sasko on Project Orion, Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, says the fantasy action RPG is the “most advanced” of the company’s ongoing projects. Speaking to Flow Games on its podcast about CDPR’s many in-development projects, he said, “Most of those are in early stages. The only difference is the Polaris project.

“So, the new Witcher saga will enter production this year. It’s the most advanced of all of those.”

Sasko reiterated the graphs released during the company’s last shareholder meeting, indicating the bulk of its developers are working on Polaris.

Aside from Orion and Polaris, other projects currently in the works include Project Sirius by The Molasses Flood and The Witcher Remake by Fool’s Theory. It also has an original IP, Project Hadar, in the works.

Despite its advanced state, Project Polaris doesn’t have a release window, and it may be a while before a reveal. CD Projekt RED co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said the team is trying to “push new boundaries and explore new fields” with the sequel. Long story short, fans shouldn’t expect The Witcher 3 “in new clothing.” Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

As part of its recent quarterly fiscal briefing, CD Projekt shared a graph showing how many people it has got working on the many projects it has in varying stages of development at the moment. As per the chart, as of April 30, there are currently zero people at CD Projekt who are working on Cyberpunk 2077. That’s down from 17 people still working on the game as of February 29.

On the other hand, the size of the team working on Project Orion, which is Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, has grown by a little bit, up from 47 people as of February 29 to 56 people as of April 30. The game, which was confirmed to be in the conceptual design stage as of October last year, is being developed primarily by CD Projekt RED’s newly established North American wing.

Meanwhile, Project Polaris, which is the next mainline The Witcher game, is by far the biggest project currently in the works at CD Projekt, with 407 people working on it as of April 30 (up from 403 people as of February 29). The company previously said the RPG will enter full production at some point in 2024.

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) May 28, 2024

Obviously, it’s still too early in the game’s development cycle to have any clarity on what it’ll turn out to be, but though CD Projekt RED isn’t ready to start sharing those details just yet, the studio does want to assure fans that The Witcher 4 (or whatever it ends up being called) isn’t just going to be “The Witcher 3 in new clothing.”

Speaking during a recent Q&A with investors, co-CEO Michał Nowakowski touched on the inherent risks of making a new game and trying to innovate with it, before adding that though the next Witcher game will building on what CDPR has learned from past games, it will also be doing things the studio hasn’t “done before.”

“When it comes to the risks of innovative elements- making a new game is always a creative risk, especially since we’re trying to push new boundaries and explore new fields, do something we haven’t actually done before,” Nowakowski said (transcription via Rock Paper Shotgun). “I guess what I’m saying is that you should not be expecting The Witcher 3 in new clothing, of sorts. Of course, we’re building on the shoulders of what came before and on what we’ve learned, but we will be adding new gameplay elements and new mechanics that you have not seen in our previous games. I’d say doing such things is always a risk. It’s not just repeating what was done before.”

Details on The Witcher 4 have been scant up to this point, with CD Projekt RED only having confirmed that it’s being developed using Unreal Engine 5, and will be the first instalment in a new trilogy. Game director Sebastian Kalemba has also said it’ll serve as “an excellent entry point” for series newcomers.

Unsurprisingly, the game that is currently demanding the bulk of CD Projekt’s attention right now is The Witcher 4, or Project Polaris, as it’s currently known. A total of 403 developers are currently working on the game, which is roughly 64 percent of CD Projekt’s entire development workforce. The project is still in pre-production right now, but CD Projekt CEO Adam Badowski confirmed earlier this year that it would be entering full production at some point in 2024.

All the other projects that are currently in the works are in much earlier stages of development. The Cyberpunk sequel, Project Orion, is currently in the concept phase, with a team of 47 people working on. A smaller team of 17 people is also continuing to work on Cyberpunk 2077, but it’s likely that number will continue to shrink in the weeks and months ahead.

Project Sirius, which is The Molasses Flood’s Witcher spinoff (which rebooted development last year), is in pre-production, and has a team of 37 developers working on it. Then there’s Fool’s Theory’s remake of the original Witcher, which is in the concept phase. Since it’s not being internally developed, CD Projekt hasn’t shared the size of the team that’s working on the remake.

Finally, there’s Project Hadar, CDPR’s first original new IP (which is also set to be an RPG). Currently in the “IP concept” stage, it’s being worked on by a team of 20 people.

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) March 28, 2024

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— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) March 28, 2024

Currently in the pre-production stage, the game aims to enter full production sometime this year, CD Projekt CEO Adam Badowski has told Reuters. Badowski also confirms that around 400 people will be working on the game “by the middle of the year”. Back in November, that number stood at around 330 people.

CD Projekt RED announced in March 2022 that it had started working on the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, and that it would be the first instalment in a new mainline trilogy for the fantasy RPG series. It will be CDPR’s first game to be built on Unreal Engine 5, and game director Sebastian Kalemba has said it’s going to be “an excellent entry point” for newcomers.

Of course, The Witcher 4 isn’t the only project CD Projekt RED is working on. Work on Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel is also underway, with the project set to have around 80 people working on it by the end of the year. Multiplayer elements are also being considered for the game.