Summary
The Witcher 4will be “better, bigger, greater” than bothThe Witcher 3andCyberpunk 2077, asthe sequel now enters full-scale production.
This comes from lead engine programmer Charles Tremblay, speaking in an interview withEurogamer. Here, Tremblay says thatCD Projekt Reddoesn’t want to “go back” on the level of quality, nor does it want to make a game that’s smaller than its previous two releases.
The Witcher 4 Will Avoid Cyberpunk 2077’s “Unacceptable” Launch Issues
“I will not say it’s easy,” Tremblay told Eurogamer. “But I think that we have some cool stuff going, and hopefully that will have some good showcase [of the technology]. The only thing I will say is that changing the tech for us does not change the fact that we always will be ambitious.”
The technology that Tremblay is referring to is Unreal Engine. This comes afterCDPR ditched its own REDengine, with all future games made in Unreal. This made Cyberpunk 2077 the last full game to be made in REDengine.
He continues, outlining the team’s ambitions with the new tech: “The next game we do will not be smaller, and it will not be worse. So it will be better, bigger, greater than The Witcher 3, it will be better than Cyberpunk - because for us, it’s unacceptable [to launch that way]. We don’t want to go back.”
CDPR’s new approach to game development was touched on inmy interview with Maria Mazur, a quest designer on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. She told me that the process of making Phantom Liberty was how the team “would have wanted to do Cyberpunk”, with better communication and making sure each department has a voice. She added that this would continue with CDPR’s future projects.
Right now, there’s no word on when The Witcher 4 will be with us. However, full production has kicked off now, just before we head into the new year.
The Witcher IV
The Witcher 4 is an upcoming RPG from Polish developer CD Projekt Red, and codenamed Polaris. Other than it being in development, little is known as to the plot, although CDPR has said it will start a new, multi-game saga.