CDPR Plans Three Witcher Sequels in Six Years
â–Ľ Summary
– CD Projekt Red plans to release three new Witcher games within a six-year period, starting from the launch of the first title in this new trilogy.
– The company believes a faster development schedule will be enabled by its transition from the proprietary REDEngine to Unreal Engine.
– This engine change aims to improve development predictability and efficiency, following technical issues with Cyberpunk 2077’s REDEngine.
– The development timeline for these sequels is expected to be shorter between each subsequent game (e.g., between The Witcher 4 and 5).
– The six-year release window will not begin until after The Witcher 4 launches, which has already been confirmed not to be in 2026.
Fans of the Continent have been waiting a long time for a new adventure. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched over a decade ago, and while the next chapter was announced years back, developer CD Projekt Red is now outlining an ambitious plan to deliver a full trilogy of sequels in a remarkably condensed timeframe. The company aims to release three new Witcher games within just six years, a schedule that hinges on a major technological shift behind the scenes.
During a recent financial update, CDPR’s Vice President of Business Development, Michał Nowakowski, explained the reasoning. A key factor is the studio’s move away from its own REDEngine, which powered both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, to the widely-used Unreal Engine. This transition, initiated in 2022, was intended to boost development predictability and provide access to more advanced tools. The decision gained urgency following the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077, where technical problems on consoles were partly attributed to the REDEngine’s streaming system.
Nowakowski expressed confidence in the new engine, stating the team is pleased with its evolution and their own growing expertise in adapting it for a massive open-world experience, which the next Witcher title is designed to be. He directly linked this technological foundation to the accelerated release plan. “I do believe that further games should be delivered in a shorter period of time,” he said. “Our plan still is to launch the whole trilogy within a six-year period… that would mean we would plan to have a shorter development time between each installment.”
It is crucial to understand the timeline, however. The six-year countdown does not begin until the first of these new games, often referred to as The Witcher 4, actually hits the market. CDPR has already confirmed that this initial title will not arrive in 2026, pushing the entire schedule further into the future. The plan is to then release the following two sequels within the six years following that debut. For eager players, the wait for the next chapter continues, but the studio is betting that its engine change will ultimately allow for a much faster flow of new content once the pipeline is fully established.
(Source: Ars Technica)
