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CD Projekt Red announces five new "The Witcher" games

5/10/2022

Translation: machine translated

In a detailed update for investors, the Polish developer studio has announced its plans for the coming years. And they have a lot to live up to.

After the disastrous launch of "Cyberpunk 2077", CD Projekt Red kept quiet for a long time about possible updates and new games. Now the studio has broken the silence and presented its ambitious plans for the future in a 14-minute video.

So that you don't have to watch the dry strategy update in full, I've summarised all the important announcements here.

Not one but five new "Witcher" games are in development

. As early as March, CD Projekt Red published a teaser for the new "Witcher" game on their blog. What no one knew at the time was that there was not just one game, but five (!) new games in development.

Codename "Polaris": A new "Witcher" trilogy begins

"Polaris" is the new "Witcher" game announced in March. CD Projekt Red is developing it not with the in-house RED Engine, but with Epic's Unreal Engine 5. According to CEO Adam Kicinski, "Polaris" is the beginning of a new AAA role-playing trilogy.

Unfortunately, CD Projekt Red did not reveal when the games will be released. Only that the three games will be released in a period of just six years. Despite the ambitious goals, CD Projekt Red is committed to living a healthy work culture and not overburdening the developers. Among other things, this should be possible by switching to Unreal Engine 5 and more efficient work processes. In the past, the studio has been in the headlines because of excessive crunch periods - so it remains to be seen whether the ambitious goals are really compatible with a healthy work culture.

Codename "Canis Majoris": New Game, New Studio

"Canis Majoris" is being developed in parallel with the new "Polaris" trilogy by an external studio. CD Projekt Red has not yet revealed which studio. However, experienced "Witcher" developers are said to be working there. This game is also being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and should benefit from the technical foundations of the "Polaris" development.

Codename "Sirius": The First Multiplayer "Witcher"

While the "Polaris" and "Canis Majoris" projects are limited to classic single-player fare, CD Projekt Red is breaking new ground with "Sirius". The game will be the first "Witcher" game with multiplayer elements. According to Adam Kicinski, however, the multiplayer mode will only be an add-on - the game still offers a classic single-player campaign as known from traditional RPGs. The game is being developed by "The Molasses Flood" - a CD Projekt Red subsidiary studio in the USA known for "The Flame in the Flood" and "Drake Hollow", among others.

New fodder for "cyberpunk" fans

In addition to the already announced expansion for "Cyberpunk 2077", fans of the futuristic RPG can look forward to a new game codenamed "Orion". The game is also being developed in the Unreal Engine 5. CD Projekt Red has not announced content details or a release date.

An all-new IP from CD Projekt Red

So far, CD Projekt Red has developed games based on existing works of fiction. The "Witcher" games are based on the fantasy books of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. "Cyberpunk 2077" makes use of the futuristic world created by Mike Pondsmith in the 1988 "Cyberpunk" tabletop game.

Now the Polish developer studio is venturing into world-building for the first time without outside help with Project "Hadar". The game is in a very early development phase - so it will probably be a while before the first images or trailers are published. But I am already curious to see what worlds CD Projekt Red will take us to next.

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