Warsaw,Poland – CD Projekt Red,the developer behind the critically acclaimed witcher video game series,announced updated timelines for its upcoming projects during a recent earnings call. The company reaffirmed plans for a new Witcher trilogy centered on the character of Ciri, wiht development of “Witcher 4” – currently utilizing Unreal Engine 5 – and Cyberpunk 2 both progressing.While a release date for the first installment remains unconfirmed, CD Projekt Red anticipates a six-year rollout for the entire trilogy following the launch of the initial title.
CD Projekt Red anticipates launching a new Witcher trilogy centered around the character of Ciri within the next six years, following the release of “Witcher 4,” which is currently in accelerated development.
New Trilogy Planned After ‘Witcher 4’
CD Projekt Red’s financial results for the third quarter provided an update on the company’s progress and future plans. Development of both Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 is accelerating, with the latter also progressing rapidly. According to co-CEO Michal Nowakowski, the company’s plans to release the complete Ciri-focused Witcher trilogy within a six-year timeframe remain unchanged, and the transition to Unreal Engine 5 is crucial to achieving this goal.
While no firm release date or window has been confirmed for “Witcher 4,” CD Projekt Red stated that the game will not launch in 2026. This means the entire Witcher trilogy is projected to be completed and released after 2032. The development teams have been utilizing Unreal Engine 5 for approximately four years and are reportedly impressed with its capabilities. The advanced features of the engine are intended to shorten development times, despite the overall trilogy timeline extending beyond 2032. This move to Unreal Engine 5 reflects a broader industry trend toward leveraging cutting-edge game engines for ambitious open-world projects.
“We’ve been using UE5 for The Witcher 4 for four years now, and we are very pleased with what we’ve achieved,” explained Michal Nowakowski. “I think you’ve seen some of that yourselves with the reveal of our tech demo at Unreal Fest a few months ago, and we are very pleased with the results – I’ve said this before, but I’m always happy to repeat it – and we’re pleased with how the engine is evolving through the expertise of the Epic team and how we’re learning how to make it work in a huge open-world game, which is what TW4 is meant to be.”
“In a way, yes, I think other games should be delivered in a shorter timeframe – as we’ve stated before, our plan is still to release the entire trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that would mean we’d be planning a shorter development time between TW4 and TW5, between TW5 and TW6, and so on,” Nowakowski added.
CD Projekt Red reiterated that the new Witcher trilogy is planned for release over a six-year period, beginning with the launch of the first game.
