The Witcher 4 is the "most advanced" project of all the games that CD Projekt Red (and its partners) are working on right now.
That's according to Pawel Sasko, associate game director on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. Speaking on the Flow Games podcast, Sasko wasn't able to give much detail on any of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games, but he did give a rundown of the whole bunch, explaining that The Witcher 4 is by far the furthest along.
Sasko echoed statements from a CD Projekt investor call in May, which itself reaffirmed plans stating that The Witcher 4 will enter production later this year. Outlining The Witcher 1 Remake, Cyberpunk 2, a somewhat troubled spin-off, Project Sirius, and the new Witcher saga starting with The Witcher 4, Sasko notes that the latter game is "the most advanced of all of those."
Crucially, that's advanced in terms of how far along it is, not how impressive its tech is. CD Projekt still isn't really talking about The Witcher 4 as a game so much as an internal idea, and it's likely that games like Cyberpunk 2 - set to release after The Witcher 4 - will push the technological envelope further. Sasko also reiterated that The Witcher 4 has the main part of CD Projekt's workforce behind it, saying that "the most people are working on the Polaris project." As of May, that number ran to "over 400 people," suggesting that the developer is really ramping up for that production phase.
Another interesting snippet from this portion of the conversation is that The Molasses Flood - the indie studio working on the somewhat difficult development of Project Sirius - is working directly with Sasko in the new Boston studio that he's helping to set up. The developer only joined forces with CDPR in 2021, it's only since then that this Boston studio has been established. That suggests that CDPR is offering a little extra help and expertise to the new project, which is intended as a game more for fans of The Witcher on Netflix than dedicated RPG players.
CD Projekt Red says its "ambition is high, crazily high" with The Witcher 4 as devs hope to "apply all the lessons learned" from Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3
CD Projekt Red says Ciri is "faster, more agile" in The Witcher 4, but she won't be OP like she is at the end of The Witcher 3: "Something totally happened in between"
