As announced by developer CD Projekt, The Witcher 4 has entered full-scale production.
As part of yours latest financial resultsThe Polish company announced that Project Polaris – the first part of the fresh Witcher trilogy – has already passed from pre-production to full-scale production.
“I am proud to confirm that a few weeks ago the Polaris team completed pre-production and moved to full-scale production – the most intensive phase of development,” comments joint CEO Michał Nowakowski. “We are very pleased with the progress of this project and I would like to thank the team for their commitment.”
“I am thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered full-scale production,” game director Sebastian Kalemba he tweeted. “With new challenges just around the corner, it is these talented and hard-working people who make me confident that together we can make the upcoming Witcher Saga an extraordinary experience. There’s no point in stopping! Stay tuned to find out what’s on the other side of the coin!”
CD Projekt currently has 400 developers working on Polaris, making up the majority of its 650-person development staff. That’s down from the 410 reported at the end of July. 64 people work on Orion, the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, 42 on Sirius, the Witcher game developed by The Molasses Flood, and 18 on Hadar, a fresh CD Projekt brand. CD Projekt recently confirmed that it has no plans to release a patch for Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 Pro, and judging by the staff hired for the upcoming projects, you can see why.
When Polaris was announced in October 2022, CD Projekt said it would be released in 2025 at the earliest. In August, Geralt of Rivia’s voice actor, Doug Cockle, revealed that the White Wolf would appear in Polaris, but not as the main character. CD Projekt had long made it clear that the Geralt saga was over, which meant a fresh hero was expected in Polaris, but this was the first confirmation that he would appear at all in the next game – and fueled several rampant theories fans.
Otherwise, only one image of the Polaris trailer was revealed, but it was enough to suggest that Ciri will be the heroine this time. What is considered to be the “true” ending of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, thanks to the continuation of her story in comics considered canon of the CD Projekt universe, shows her becoming a witcher herself.
The Witcher 4 trailer photo. Image source: CD Projekt.A medallion depicting a lynx also appeared in the trailer, and although this is a completely fresh Witcher school that has not been previously mentioned in the books, games, and comics, Ciri wore a medallion of the School of the Cat in the books, and its philosophy matches her agile fighting style.
The news comes as Cyberpunk 2077 has sold an astonishing 30 million copies and the Phantom Liberty expansion has sold over eight million. CD Projekt noted “strong sales” of both the game and The Witcher 3 in the third quarter.
“In less than four years since its release, we have already sold 30 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077, and as for Phantom Liberty – in just over a year we have sold over eight million copies,” Nowakowski added. “These are impressive numbers. I’m very elated that there is a enormous, dedicated community around our Cyberpunk games. In the coming year, the base game and its expansion will be made available to a fresh group of users: owners of Mac devices powered by Apple Silicon chips.”
Wesley is the UK news editor at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wy100@proton.me.
