CD Projekt is sticking to its ambitious plan to release all three video games in the new Ciri-fronted The Witcher trilogy within a six-year period.
Speaking during a recent financial call, United CEO Michael Nowakowski said that future The Witcher video games “should be delivered in a short period of time.” That’s because CD Projekt has switched to Unreal Engine 5 for the full production of not only The Witcher 4, but The Witcher 5 and 6.
Here is Nowakowski’s full quote:
“We’ve been using UE5 for The Witcher 4 for almost four years now, and we’re very happy with what we’ve achieved. I think you may have seen some of that with your own eyes during our tech demo demonstration at Unreal Fest a few months ago, and we’re also very happy with the results of that – we’ve said this before, but I’m always happy to say it again – and we’re happy with how the engine is evolving through the efforts of the Epic team, and how we Learning how to make it work in a huge open world game, as TW4 is supposed to be.
“In a way, yes, I believe that further games should be delivered in a shorter period of time – as we said before, our plan is still to launch the entire trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that would mean that we would plan to have a shorter development time between TW4 and TW5, between TW5 and TW6, and so on.”
This is an extremely ambitious release plan that seems even more surprising considering The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was originally released on May 19, 2015 – four years after The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Based on Nowakowski’s comments, CD Projekt plans to release The Witcher 5 three years after The Witcher 4, then The Witcher 6 three years after that, assuming it wants to spread out each release evenly.
As we’ve seen, AAA video game development can be a difficult endeavor that takes years to complete. Bethesda is still a ways off from The Elder Scrolls 6, which it announced in 2018. Microsoft’s new Fable game, which will arrive in 2026, was announced in 2020, but development had begun before then. And there was a five-year gap between the releases of Sony’s Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei.
So, the idea that CD Projekt would release three new The Witcher games in six years is certainly ambitious, and it remains to be seen if this plan sticks when all is said and done. But assuming this, when can we expect the games to actually come out?
CD Projekt has indicated that The Witcher 4 will not be released until 2026, so 2027 at the earliest. According to CD Projekt’s latest financial report, 447 people are currently working on The Witcher 4, which is slightly more than the number reported at the end of July. Clearly, that’s CD Projekt’s focus at the moment and production is in full swing. Let’s say The Witcher 4 comes out in November 2027. This would mean The Witcher 5 in 2030, and The Witcher 6 in 2033.
There are a number of spanners that can eventually be thrown into the works. There’s no doubt that CD Projekt will have to manage the console transition, which may or may not happen before The Witcher 4 arrives. And who knows where the world, generally, will be in just a year’s time, let alone four or five? The video game industry, already battling perhaps the most transformative, disruptive time in its history, could be in a very different place in just a few years. It is impossible to predict much about anything right now.
Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2 is in the works at CD Projekt, although it’s lagging behind The Witcher 4. Will Cyberpunk 2 arrive in between one of these new The Witcher games, or will CD Projekt wait until the new trilogy arrives before pulling the trigger? And let’s not forget that The Witcher 1 Remake CD project is somewhat in the works. Will it launch in the middle of the new trilogy? The Polish company also has other projects in various stages of development, as well as non-video game projects involving its IP. In short, CD Projekt has a lot going on. A lot of stuff.
CD Projekt recently dropped The Witcher 4 from this month’s The Game Awards, so don’t expect any new trailers there. Our last look at the game came in June via the hugely impressive Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, which Nowakowski mentioned in his comments. So, don’t hold your breath for The Witcher 4, but when it finally comes out – assuming everything goes according to CD Projekt’s plan – fans are in for a potentially incredible six years.
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Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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