The Witcher 4

The Witcher 4 (working title) is the fourth installment in the hit RPG series by Polish studio CD Projekt Red, based on bestselling short stories and fantasy novels by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The game was officially announced on March 21, 2022 as "the beginning of a new Witcher saga." We also have some clues as to what The Witcher 4 will be.

When?

CD Projekt's updated business strategy from March 2021 suggests that full development of The Witcher 4 will begin in 2022. Given the timing of the developer's previous works, the game's release should not be expected earlier than 2025-2026.

Ciri

The plot of The Witcher 4 will most likely take place after the events presented in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. However, CD Projekt Red declares that the story of Geralt of Rivia is already closed, so we should expect a change of the main character - the most likely candidate for this role is Ciri. But the question is how the developers will solve the problem of different variants of the heroine's fate, depending on the ending of Wild Hunt (presumably one of them will be considered canonical and the rest rejected).

What we know

In terms of gameplay, The Witcher 4 will probably continue the development path of CD Projekt Red studio set by The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. The adventure will again be set in an open world, and the mechanisms typical of the RPG genre (character development, interactive dialogues, extensive equipment management, etc.) will be accompanied by solutions typical of action games. We can expect a more polished combat system, as well as new mechanics, such as sneaking. Almost certainly the third-person perspective will be retained.

Multiplayer

CD Projekt Red's focus is on telling expansive single-player stories, but since the release of Cyberpunk 2077 the studio wants to supplement its games with online multiplayer components. This doesn't have to mean adding a multiplayer mode to The Witcher 4, though - the online module could just as well take the form of a game that would be related to the project described here, but would function independently of it (analogous to, for example, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online).

Unreal Engine 5

Unlike CD Projekt RED's previous games, which ran on REDengine, The Witcher 4 will be developed using Unreal Engine 5 technology.

Last updated on 18 October 2024