Image: CD Projekt Red
The developer promises a whole trilogy of Witcher games will be released in just six years.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has just announced a huge slate of upcoming games it has in development, including multiple new Witcher games, a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and another original project. One of these titles will be a sequel to The Witcher 3, as part of the developer’s previously-announced new Witcher trilogy built in Unreal Engine 5.
Let’s break this down. Most of these games are untitled and were announced with temporary codenames, such as Orion - CD Projekt Red’s upcoming sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 that will, “take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe.” Despite Cyberpunk 2077 being a high-profile unmitigated disaster at launch, the game has become a successful new IP for CD Projekt, with Netflix’s recent anime spin-off Cyberpunk: Edgerunners proving that there’s a lot more potential in this universe for stories to be told (and money to be made).
Next up, we have three whole Witcher games. Just as The Witcher trilogy told the saga of Geralt based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, the next Witcher trilogy will begin a new saga with new characters and stories. This game is titled Polaris and CD Projekt is already trying to quell fears of long waiting times in between each installment of the trilogy: all three games will be released within six years of the first game’s launch. Personally, I don’t buy that for a hot second, but take the developer’s word as you will.
That’s not all, though! Two more Witcher games are being developed by external game studios separate from CD Projekt RED. One game is codenamed Canis Majoris, described as, “a full-fledged Witcher game, separate to the new Witcher saga starting with Polaris.” This game is being developed by a studio, “headed by experienced developers who have worked on past Witcher games.” Given that CD Projekt emphasises that Canis Majoris is separate from the new trilogy, there’s still a chance this game connects to Geralt’s trilogy instead.
Codename Sirius is another Witcher game in development at The Molasses Flood, a CD Projekt Red-connected studio that will, “differ from our past productions, offering multiplayer gameplay on top of a single-player experience including a campaign with quests and a story.” This could be more akin to smaller Witcher projects like CD Projekt’s Gwent and Thronebreaker games. Most of the games announced today will feature multiplayer modes which, according to the developer, will, “enrich the single-player experience.”
Lastly, the studio announced a brand-new IP it’s working on codenamed Hadar. Hadar makes it so the developer has three game worlds in rotation to explore with sequels and spin-offs: The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and this mystery franchise. Unlike the other two, Hadar is an original work created from scratch at the studio, currently in, “the earliest stages of the creative process, which means we are not developing any game yet, but working exclusively on the foundation for this new setting.” Don’t expect Hadar to show up with gameplay for the next five years, minimum.
On the back of this insane series of announcements, CD Projekt has also announced that longtime co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwinski is stepping down from his role to become chairman of the publisher’s supervisory board. The publisher’s next-gen The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt update will also be released by the end of the year, including new graphical features and basically functioning as a small-scale remaster.