The Witcher 4, tentatively referred to as Project Polaris, will not be a reskinned version of The Witcher 3, as it will feature brand new gameplay mechanics.
During a Q&A session following its financial report for Fiscal Year 2023, Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO at CD Projekt, was asked regarding the remaining development time, in years, for The Witcher 4. In response, he stated that he is unable to give a specific time frame because doing so would be leading on to the release date, which is not something the studio has historically done, and it will not be doing that right now.
Nowakowski mentioned that revealing release dates is part of the marketing plan, and that’s not something
the development team is willing to do at this point. He said that, when it comes to the risks of innovative elements, making a new game is always a creative risk, especially since CD Projekt is trying to push new boundaries and explore new fields. He said that this is something the studio hasn’t done before. He refrained from going into detail, as that would require sharing deeper insight into the game.
The joint CEO said that players should not be expecting “The Witcher 3 in new clothing” of sorts. He clarified that while the development team is naturally building on the shoulders of what came before, and on what it has learned, it will be adding new gameplay elements and new mechanics to The Witcher 4 that have not been seen in the studio’s previous games. He added that doing such things is always a risk, as it’s not just repeating what was done before.
During the financial report presentation, Nowakowski revealed that Polaris will is currently CD Projekt’s most developed project. Although the game is still in the pre-production stage, the development team’s plan is to begin production in the second half of the year.