Details about the forthcoming The Witcher IV and its subsequent sequels were revealed at a recent CD PROJEKT RED earnings call. The Witcher IV was announced in December 2024. Not much has been revealed about it since, but co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has said that the development team is now fully staffed and has entered the full-scale production phase. He also added that it will not be released in 2026 and did not provide a planned release date, but did reveal an interesting goal of releasing the entire trilogy within a six-year timespan and that the team is very happy with the switch from using its internal engine to UE5.
“We’ve been using UE5 for The Witcher 4 for almost five years now [IR comment: almost four
years], and we’re very happy with what we’ve achieved. I think you could have seen some of that
with your own eyes with our tech demo reveal at Unreal Fest couple of months ago, and we’re very
happy with the results of that as well – we’ve already said that, but I’m always happy to say it again
– and we’re happy with how the engine is evolving through the Epic team’s eYorts, and how we are
learning how to make it work within a huge open-world game, as TW4 is meant to be.
In a way, yes, I do believe that further games should be delivered in a shorter period of time – as we had
stated before, our plan still is to launch the whole trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that
would mean we would plan to have a shorter development time between TW4 and TW5, between
TW5 and TW6 and so on” -Michał Nowakowski
It was a bit of a surprise that after using Red Engine to develop the first trilogy that CDPR has chosen to switch over to Unreal Engine 5 for the next round of games, but they are among a number of studios to make a similar choice in recent years. Meanwhile, with The Game Awards right around the corner, some were hoping to see perhaps a new trailer or gameplay footage at this year’s event, but it seems that is not to be either.
I’m very happy to see The Witcher 4 nominated in the Most Anticipated Game category at The Game Awards. Thanks to everyone who has already voted – your support means a lot of to us. We won’t be bringing any new content to TGA this year, but we’re, as always, excited to watch the…
— Michał Nowakowski (@michalnowakow) November 26, 2025
Folks awaiting the remake for the first game will have a bit longer to wait since its team over at Fool’s Theory is primarily working on The Witcher IV. No date for The Witcher Remake was given but it doesn’t sound like it’ll be arriving anytime soon.
“In terms of Fool’s Theory – I think we stated in the past that the majority of the team is currently involved in the other project, and also support for The Witcher 4, so there is some limited team working on TW1, but since it’s very much tied with TW4 development – this is also why we made this move, and we have explained that in the past – so, for TW1 per se, it’s a smaller group of people.”
What about AI?
AI has been a controversial topic within the gaming industry, whether it be for use in game development to it being attributed to mass layoffs as publishers seek lower development costs by replacing staff. The question came up during the earnings call, asking about this, to which Nowakowski clarified that while CDRP does use AI to assist in productivity areas and “it’s not gonna be making The Witcher 5, or 6, or anything like that.”
Discussion (17 replies)
Join Discussion →Happy about being in the most anticipated game category. Sure...
Dikatana, was very anticipated. So is Star Citizen. I dont see those happening.
I'm glad they're taking their time but I did get a sense of concern from the board members regarding the amount of time and investment for TW4 but CDPR stuck to their guns in saying this is what they always said the plan was and are committed to it.
I'm only bummed because I feel like the TW1 remake could get out the door sooner but since I'm not really knowledgeable about what they're doing that assumption doesn't have a true basis to judge by. Bottom line for it, I'd like to be playing it tomorrow.
Man, I'm ready to play anything at this point. I can't believe the most exciting upcoming game is a 4th in a series where I didn't really like any of the previous three. The way I look at it there was no great AAA game since Cyberpunk 2077, and that is going to be five years old within weeks. The AAA gaming industry has become pathetic.
Tell me ... how does one finish a trilogy with the fourth title in the series?
That's a bit of a misnomer, don't you think?
Or rather they both happened an no-one cared =)
It's a new triology starting with the IV-th and finishing with the VI-th.
Pretty much the same that was done with SW, prequels, 1st and 2nd trilogies that all aligned with the same sequential numbers, but I do agree though, that it would've made more sense to start another branch but its easier to keep the marketing for sales by not doing so. Imagine The Witcher Ciri Saga, etc. vs keeping as is.
Kind of there too and basically replaying things or tinkering with various remasters/remakes.
I got the Silent 2 remake on sale about a month ago just to see what all the fuss was about, and while I did enjoy some parts of it, but very disturbed by others, and really saw how it led to the Alan Wake universe happening. I finished 80% and am pretty sure I'm done with it. I got the Oblivion remake and Sunken City remaster on sale during black friday will be tinkering with them soon. I booted both up last weekend and liked what I saw.
Beyond that, I'm about 3/4 of the way into the HZD remaster and not sure if I'll finish it either. Meanwhile, I keep reconsidering a 2nd playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 as I never went back to do Phantom Liberty and wanted to try both in a 2nd run, not to mention all the RT and whatnot tweaks were made since 2020. The 2nd game is keeping to its development schedule, but it could be years before it is released.
As far as the future goes, 2026 to me is looking fairly bleak. Crysis 4 is cancelled, and despite whatever was wrong in the 2nd and 3rd games, I was still looking forward to that. No word on the next Metro game, but I think we might at least hear something next year. I've got mixed feelings about the next RE game, and I'm sick of all these time-travel/alternative universe type games. Next Elder Scrolls is probably 3-5 years off unless we get lucky. I was looking forward to the Deadspace follow-up, which would've combined elements from the 2nd and 3rd games, but that got cancelled. I honestly can't think of a single game that I'm truly looking forward to in 2026, but I am hoping to be surprised.
Still hope for HL3, but we all know how that goes. That reminds me, I can still go back and finish the HL2 RTX remix. Still haven't finished that Robocop game either; maybe 60% done with that one, and was having fun with it. On the PlayStation front, I did snag both Miles Morales and SM2 in recent sales, just not in the right state of mind to play either yet, and still on the fence with getting Ragnarok. Starfield is always in the back of my mind as well. I think I got about 30% in on that before I got bored.
It kind of does, glanced trough a list of games for next year and nothing much stood out, of course I'm getting a new expac in Wow so there is that, more content for Borderlands 4 and maybe that Wolverine game might be worth getting.and maybe the Gothic 1 remake.
I should also get trough my 2nd playtrough of cp2077 but the wait until we call you to progress the story kind of bummed me out that's the 2nd quest chain that blocks my progress like that. Also need to finish Doom the dark ages which got put on hold for BL4.
more oon topic, it would suprise me if they can churn out 3 games in 6 years unless they delay the first one until they are nearly done with the 2nd one gioven that they have been working for almost 5 years on the 4th one
While I look forward to TW4, especially after enjoying the hell out of TW3, I am a little worried by the cadence CDPR is looking for.
I've seen SW mentioned in here and like that franchise I hope CDPR doesn't oversaturate the franchise with releases.
Give each entry some time to breathe (not to mention your staff).
Possible announcement I hear in my head... so not reality yet.
"We've alleviated a lot of the heavy lifting of world design from our staff by brining in an intelligent AI to help populate the fast reaches of wilderness in our games and make sure there are salient interesting POI to engage with while you explore the world at large."
Game releases..
"Why TF was I attacked by colorful pony's wielding rainbow lightsabers on their heads?!"
Sort of keeping with the topic. I saw a few weeks back that Halk Hogan has another texture pack coming out for the TW3 RTX edition. I watched the vid for it and while some things didn't look much different there were others that had a wow factor to them. I keep telling myself I'm not going to do another playthrough (I've probably clocked 1000+ hours at this point with well over a dozen runs where I've tried to find everything). However for you folks that haven't tried any of his packs I do highly recommend them.
I think the aim is to use the same tech for all three games, basically making the fifth and sixth games glorified expansion packs rather than brand new games. Like Phantom Liberty with a longer campaign.
And I'm fine with that.
Phantom Liberty is literally the newest game I finished, almost 2 years ago. Nothing really excited me since then. I've started 2 or 3 new playthroughs of CP2077 since then, but I always get sidetracked and just go exploring random locations, trying to get to places you're not meant to reach. The game is now my 5th most played game ever, playtime wise currently sitting at 315 hours.
I'm interested in the oblivion remaster, but I fear I'd launch it once play 15 minutes then never go back to it. I'm hoping for a deal on Baldur's Gate 3 during the holiday sale, but that game just refuses to come down to Earth, or even meet me halfway.
Recently I've been meaning to go back to Jagged Alliance 3, as it is a really good game and I don't think I fully exhausted it yet, there has been tons of patches and even a free expansion since I played it.
I totally forgot about the HL3 rumors, guess I'm no longer hyped for it at all. You want to hear something funny? I never even completed Episode 2.