The Witcher 4 is CD Projekt’s next big RPG, and the studio is trying to harness some of the “scrappy” vibes the team had more than a decade ago when it was making The Witcher 3.
Narrative director Philipp Weber told GamesRadar that when the team was making The Witcher 3, there was “good creative chaos” going on at the studio. In practice, what this meant was that developers were working in a “vibe-based” manner and getting stuff done even if it was outside of their specific job remit.
“Sometimes I like to just say, ‘Get it done. Do it dirty. Do it the way we used to do it!” Weber said.
This development philosophy worked out for the studio, as The Witcher 3 sold more than 60 million copies and is one of the top 10 best-selling video games of all time. For The Witcher 4, Weber said CD Projekt aims to “do justice” to the franchise’s story history by trying to retain what made The Witcher 3’s development special. But the Polish studio is also trying new things.
“There are [also] new questions we want to answer, because this is supposed to feel like a true sequel, not just redoing what we did before. And I think it’s really [about] trying to have that healthy mix of moving forward and also trying out some new things,” Weber explained.
The Witcher 4 doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s not expected to launch until 2027 at the soonest. It’s one of multiple games in development now at CD Projekt. Some of the others include Cyberpunk 2, a remake of the original Witcher, and a game produced in partnership with Saudi Arabia.
The Witcher 4 focuses its story on Ciri, and this has generated some amount of debate and controversy. Some people are calling the game “woke,” but Geralt’s voice actor has slammed these critics. In other news, a new tech demo for the game debuted recently, and while it looked very impressive, the developers want people to know it wasn’t actually the game.
