Image: CD Projekt Red
The next Witcher game is in development at CD Projekt Red, but it probably won’t feature Geralt of Rivia.
CD Projekt Red has announced that a new Witcher game based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s books has entered development. The developer calls this game, “the next installment in the Witcher franchise,” but don’t expect it to be The Witcher 4. The new game is also meant to kick off, “a new saga,” for the franchise.
The biggest change mentioned in CD Projekt Red’s announcement is that the new Witcher game will be developed using Unreal Engine 5, as opposed to the studio's own REDengine. Most recently, a new iteration of its engine called REDengine4 was used to develop Cyberpunk 2077. The game ended up launching with several technical issues, to put it mildly.
The studio will now work closely with developers from Epic Games to help tailor Unreal Engine 5 for, “open-world experiences.” This doesn’t mean that the new Witcher game will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store however, according to a tweet from the studio. The REDengine is still getting some use from the studio too, as the Cyberpunk 2077 team continues to develop the game’s upcoming expansion.
We don’t know much about this new Witcher game, but we can assume that it’s still many years away from release. A teaser image for the game features a witcher medallion buried in snow, with its eyes glowing bright red. It’s somewhat covered by snow, but visibly isn’t Geralt’s wolf medallion. Seeing as Geralt had his story come to a satisfying conclusion in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its final expansion Blood and Wine, we could see the ‘new saga’ featuring a new witcher protagonist.
The next Witcher game could also follow Ciri, since one of The Witcher 3’s many endings has her continue traveling the Continent and beyond as a fully-fledged monster-hunting witcher. Geralt is still canonically around, if somewhat retired, so he could always pop his back in the story for a hot minute if he needs to. Seeing as the Witcher trilogy takes place after the events of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, the studio could simply turn back time and do a prequel series starring a younger Geralt too.
It’s no surprise that CD Projekt is keeping the Witcher series going. As a franchise, The Witcher is the biggest it has ever been - with sales of The Witcher 3 skyrocketing after the debut of Netflix’s The Witcher series starring Henry Cavill. The Netflix series is now in production on a third season, and multiple spin-offs are in development including a prequel series, a children’s series and a second animated movie.