The Witcher “Polaris” project may enter production phase in 2024
With Cyberpunk 2077 brought to a successful conclusion thanks to the Phantom Liberty DLC as well as several free updates, CD Projekt is fully pivoting its manpower back to The Witcher. The newly-appointed joint CEO of the company, Adam Badowski, told Reuters that it aims to get 400 or so employees working on project “Polaris” by the middle of the year.
“Polaris” is the codename for CD Projekt’s next flagship project, a completely fresh trilogy of The Witcher games that explores the popular fantasy world in a time after beloved characters like Ciri and Geralt. And that’s all we know about it, basically.
With the first game entering full production phase in 2024, we are unlikely to hear anything more concrete about it for the next two to three years – and the launch may be further away yet.
Cyberpunk is not fully out of the picture, of course. According to the CEO, CD Project wants to have around 80 people working on project “Orion” by the end of the year, which is going to be a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. Badowski’s co-CEO, Michal Nowakowski, said that multiplayer was being considered for the next entry into the sci-fi franchise, but nothing is certain quite yet.
CD Projekt will keep expanding its North American presence this year and has formed a team to explore the use of AI during game development – though Nowakowski emphasized that “AI is something that can help improve certain processes in game production, but not replace people.”
While they’re waiting for fresh games from CD Projekt, fans can enjoy their time in The Witcher 3, which is going to get official modding tools in 2024 – almost a decade after release.