CD Projekt says The Witcher 4 will surpass The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, promising a polished launch and avoiding past mistakes: “For us, it’s unacceptable.”
It’s no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 had one of the most infamous launches in gaming history. Bugs, performance issues, and underwhelming last-gen console optimization marred what was supposed to be CD Projekt’s crowning achievement.
But, after years of updates, fixes, and the well-received Phantom Liberty expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 has clawed its way back to becoming one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs today. Now, the game sits at a very pleasant “Very Positive” user rating on Steam.
Fast forward to today, and all eyes are on The Witcher 4 (codenamed Project Polaris), the next major project from CD Projekt RED. The developer recently confirmed that the game has entered “full-scale production” which is the “the most intensive phase of development,” said Michał Nowakowski, Joint CEO of CD Projekt, as part of the latest quarterly earnings report.
CD Projekt’s Vision for The Witcher 4: Bigger, Better, and Greater
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, CD Projekt didn’t shy away from addressing its ambitions for The Witcher 4. Charles Tremblay, CDPR’s Vice President of Technology, talked about the switch from the in-hour REDengine to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 for future CDPR projects.
He stated, “The next game we do will not be smaller, and it will not be worse. So it will be better, bigger, greater than The Witcher 3, it will be better than Cyberpunk [2077] because, for us, it’s unacceptable [to launch a game that way]. We don’t want to go back.”
Tremblay acknowledged that development is rarely smooth, describing the inevitable “sweaty moments” and unforeseen challenges. Still, he emphasized that CD Projekt’s standards have fundamentally changed.
“Even if there will be some ‘sweaty moments’ and maybe even some bad stuff happening, still, I think that we will try everything we can to make it even more than what we achieved in the past years. So the technology should not be a blocker for us, basically.”
One of the major shifts in CD Projekt’s approach to The Witcher 4 is the transition from their in-house REDengine to Unreal Engine 5, a decision that has sparked significant interest among fans. Tremblay also explained the reasoning behind this, stating: “The first thing I want to say again, to be sure, 100 percent clear, is that the whole team, myself included, are extremely proud of the engine we built for Cyberpunk.”
“So it is not about, ‘This is so bad that we need to switch’ and, you know, ‘Kill me now’ – that is not true. That is not true, and this is not why the decision was made to switch.” Instead, the change was driven by CD Projekt’s desire to handle multiple projects simultaneously, such as The Witcher 4, Cyberpunk Orion, and their new IP codenamed Hadar.
Tremblay noted, “The way we built stuff in the past was very one-sided, like one project at a time. We pushed the limit – but also we saw that if we wanted to have a multi-project at the same time, building in parallel, sharing technology together, it is not easy.”
“We wanted to be sure that we developed some of the technology correctly this time around – with our expertise, we know how to do things with the experience we had in the past, and now it’s time to actually make it shareable across all the groups.”
While the scars of Cyberpunk 2077 remain, it’s clear that CD Projekt is using them as a roadmap for what not to do. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below!
