Just when you thought you’d played every RPG – exhausted every stat, depleted the XP of every last creature, tap-dancing through every branching quest line – CD Projekt announced that The Witcher 4 was in “full-scale production”.
“I am pleased to announce that it has gone into full-scale production a few weeks ago,” said CFO Piotr Nielubowicz about the game, which is currently codenamed Polaris, during the company’s presentation the latest presentation of quarterly results investors (thanks, VGC). “Of all our projects, this is currently the most advanced and we are entering the most intense phase of development.”
The game’s director, Sebastian Kalemba, was also there making an announcement on social media. “No more break!” he was delighted. “Stay up to date on what’s on the other side of the coin!” The post was accompanied by a photo of the coin – see the headline of this article – which was engraved with rays of featherlight over the cliffside and several runes. You know what, I bet there’s an image of a witcher on the other side of the coin! Perhaps a picture of The Witcher with the words “The Witcher 4” written on it.
Keep in mind that the next Witcher game may not be called The Witcher 4. I once took a sci-fi writing class where the teacher grumpily remarked that book publishers were wary of overtly episodic fantasy stories because “why would I buy Frostblazen Book XII , since I have not purchased and read Frostblazen Books I-XI.” I suspect video game publishers have similar concerns. It’s been a long time since The Witcher 3 was released – calling it The Witcher 4 could scare away players who missed the last game. Maybe they’ll give it an annoying subtitle instead, or just chicken out and call it “The Witcher” like they did with Lords Of The Fallen.
In March, over 400 CD Projekt employees worked on Polaris. This will be the first part of a recent trilogy of The Witcher games. CD Projekt’s other current ventures include a remake of The Witcher 1, developed in collaboration with Fool’s Theory, Project Sirius, a spin-off of The Witcher with multiplayer elements from The Molasses Flood, and Project Orion, the next Cyberpunk game.
What does “full scale production” mean? This is a vague category, but it’s basically the longer part of development after the more open pre-production phase where things like character models, environments, and combat systems are actually created and finished. I’m squinting a lot at the tea leaves, but it’s probably secure to say that CD Projekt will make this official and release some videos and photos next year.
