The Witcher 4 is set to enter production soon, CD Projekt says

Production on the fourth Witcher game is set to begin soon, CD Projekt says.

In a statement summing up its financial results for the first half of its financial year, the Polish developer and publisher stated that the game, codenamed Polaris, is nearing the end of pre-production.

“Work on Polaris is progressing,” CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said in the statement.

“Its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the pre-production phase.”

During an earnings call, Nowakowski reiteratred this, saying: “The situation in our ongoing projects this year is pretty stable, and they have been progressing at a consistent pace.

“The Polaris team is maintaining the right scale to enter the production phase very soon, while our work on both announced and unannounced projects is steadily progressing.”

Nowakowski also noted that CD Projekt’s Boston studio was “laying the groundwork for Project Orion, a new game set in the Cyberpunk universe”.

Two thirds of CD Projekt are currently working on Polaris. As revealed during an earnings conference for the publisher’s FY 2023 earnings in March 2024, the development team sat at 403 staff at the time (this is now 410).

Nowakowski explained at the time that following the release of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, the number of staff working on that game had dropped to just 17, with others being distributed to other projects.

“The Polaris team, on the other hand, has grown to over 400 developers,” Nowakowski said in March, “reaching its target size for entering the production phase. This is scheduled for the second half of the year.”