The Witcher 4 – Everything We Know About Polaris So Far
Since The Witcher 4 North Star was announced back in 2022, fans have been anxiously awaiting – begging – for more concrete information about the upcoming fantasy RPG.
Even though it probably won’t even be called that The Witcher 4that’s what we’re referring to for now for the upcoming game and project. Actually, we already know it’s called something else, at least internally: developer CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 4 and codenamed the game ‘Polaris’.
The glimmer of hope we have now with the game and that we’re hearing more about is that with the release of Cyberpunk2077 2.0, and the Phantom Freedom expansion, a large portion of the developers at CDPR are now being transferred to The Witcher 4 / Polaris. Hopefully this means that development itself will speed up and that news about the game will arrive sooner rather than later.
While we wait for more news about The Witcher 4Here’s everything that’s been revealed about the game so far. As the developer shares more details, you’ll find this page updated – we’re just as excited as you are, so we can’t wait to get more details.
The Witcher 4: Get straight to the point
- What is it? The next main match in The Witcher series
- When can I play it? To be defined
- What can I play it on? To be defined
- Who makes it? CD Project Red
The Story and Setting of The Witcher 4
Spoilers for The Witcher game series
As mentioned above, there are few details available about The Witcher 4The . official blog post only confirms that it is in development and that it is being built in Unreal Engine 5. But CD Projekt Red has said a lot over the years about what a future Witcher game would entail. For starters, it’s not really The Witcher 4.
“The first three ‘Witchers’ were a trilogy by definition, so we simply couldn’t call the next game ‘The Witcher 4,’” Kiciński said in a interview“Of course, this doesn’t mean we’re leaving the world of The Witcher.”
At the end of The Witcher 3: Blood and WineMonster hunter Geralt was alive and well. Well, he was alive and well, anyway. But his storyline was over, the Wild Hunt was over. That doesn’t mean he won’t be back in this new Witcher game, although he probably won’t be the main character.
The developer said it back in 2013: “We’re not going to destroy the world and then call it a day, but we definitely want to make this game a grand finale,” executive producer John Mamais told Polygon“We could even include Geralt in later games. We just have to talk about it and figure out what to do next.”
In 2015, speaking to IGNSenior writer Jakub Szamałek confirmed that the studio felt The Witcher 3 was a natural ending for Geralt: “[he] has had such an amazing adventure, and his saga has been so long and complex that this seemed like a good time to think about a fitting ending for the story.”
Perhaps we’ll see the reins handed over to Ciri – if it’s canonically decided that she survived The Witcher 3. To avoid continuity issues, the team may set the story before the events of Geralt’s adventures. After all, Netflix is developing a series set long before the events of the books, Blood Origin is a prequel set 1,000 years before the events of The Witcher.
The confirmation that the medallion shown in the game’s announcement photo is a lynx certainly suggests that the game is going in a new direction, possibly introducing a whole new school of Witcher.
Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski has signed a new deal with the company to “further solidify our relationship,” meaning the studio can freely draw from any of his short stories or novels. (If you need a refresher, here’s how to read the Witcher books in order.)
The Witcher 4 engine
This is a relatively large factor that has been confirmed for The Witcher 4and one we’re definitely excited about. In the spring of last year, the development team confirmed that The Witcher 4 would be built on Unreal Engine 5 – rather than the studio’s own engine, REDengine.
The latter was used on The Witcher 3 And Cyberpunk2077 That has its benefits, but in short, the move to Unreal Engine 5 means the studio has access to a broader range of features, solutions and tools that allow it to create environments that are more detailed and realistic, and have better overall visual fidelity than ever before.
Note that this marks the beginning of a partnership with Epic, but it does not mean the game will be exclusive to the Epic Game Store.
Will Geralt be in The Witcher 4?
While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the two expansions rounded out Geralt’s trilogy incredibly well, there is a constant desire from fans to know if Geralt is in The Witcher 4.
The core answer to this question, though, is this: we just don’t know if Geralt will be there. The Witcher 4. As a playable character, the main character or as an extra in an NPC, we just don’t know.
We can speculate though, and we suspect it’s unlikely he’ll play a major role. We know CD Projekt Red always envisioned The Witcher 3 as a “finale” for the iconic monster slayer, and whatever ending you got in the third game really sets the tone for a now elderly Geralt who has retired and is out of the game. We can easily imagine Geralt appearing as a supporting character or Ciri’s mentor (if the series goes that way), so hopefully this isn’t the last we see of him.
The Witcher 4 news
The Witcher 4 will focus on freedom
Sebastien Kalemba, Game Director at CDPR, spoke at the end of 2023 about creating new versions of RPG gameplay and features for The Witcher 4. The intention is to push the boundaries of RPG games and there is a desire to “tell something more intense, with also more intense gameplay.”
A large portion of CD Projekt Red’s staff is now working on The Witcher 4
In late November, CDPR announced via an earnings report that the production team working on the film, The Witcher 4 had grown to around 330 people actively working on the game. That number is expected to grow to over 400 by mid-2024 as production really ramps up. As first reported on the time of this news330 represents just under half of CDPR’s development staff.
CDPR is already conducting internal demos of The Witcher 4 on consoles
Learning his lesson from Cyberpunk 2077The devs at CDPR go to great lengths to test their next project – and they do so from the early stages. reported by our sister site GamesRadar+In an interview with Inven Global, CD Project Red’s Technical Director Colin Walder confirmed that, given the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles in 2020, “For our next project, North StarWe’ve been running demos and internal reviews on the console since the beginning.” This means that The Witcher 4 is already being tested on consoles to ensure there’s a greater chance it will actually succeed when the day comes.
A “large portion” of CDPRs Cyberpunk2077 team will move to The Witcher 4
CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński revealed in an August 2023 earnings call that, following the launch of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion, a “large portion” of that team will move over to The Witcher 4/North StarThis indicates a major acceleration in development, which could speed things up.
The Witcher 4 has its Game Director
Sebastian Kalemba, the former lead animator of The Witcher 3has been announced as Game Director for The Witcher 4They announced this on Twitter, stating that they want to raise the bar.
Polaris and a brand new trilogy
In early October 2022, CD Projekt RED announced a number of new titles via Twitterincluding a new Witcher trilogy. Polaris (what we’ve been calling The Witcher 4) will kick off the new saga, which will then take place 6 years from the initial release. This is clearly a huge undertaking, so we’ll have to wait and see if it pays off.
Confirmation of the beginning of a new saga
CD Projekt RED has reaffirmed that The Witcher 4 will launch a saga. While it did not confirm how many games are involved, CEO Adam Kiciński made the claims during a earnings call. “We said there would be a new saga. Of course, we are now in pre-production on the first game of this saga. But we have more than one in mind. The first saga consisted of three games, so now we are thinking about more than one game. But we are in pre-production on the first game of the second Witcher saga.”
The Witcher 4 teaser image sparks many theories
When The Witcher 4 was first announced to use the image we have here as the header – that of a partially snow-covered Witcher medallion – and it led to much discussion about which school it was, and whether that was a giveaway. As reported by our brethren at GamesRadar+ at the timeThe medallion was initially believed to be from the School of the Cat – which would imply a connection to Ciri, as she came into possession of one after taking it from Leo Bonhart. However, this was debunked on Twitter when community director Marcin Momot responded positively to a fan who asked if it was actually the School of the Lynx medallion.
