We know there's a new Witcher game on the way. Originally announced last March, CD Projekt confirmed it's being called Project Polaris internally in a tweet thread that also announced a new Witcher trilogy and two more Witcher games alongside the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. No release windows were provided, but now we're finding out that it's going to be a long wait for new Witcher games.
In a call with investors yesterday, CD Projekt co-CEO Adam Kiciński said that work has started for Project Polaris, but it's in the very earliest stages.
"For Polaris we are preparing technology," said Kiciński. "This is the first project to be released on the new engine--Unreal Engine 5. There is a need for some extra work making this technology. For this project, for sure we need some extra effort to deliver."
Polaris will be the next new Witcher game and the first in a new trilogy of immersive RPGs. With CD Projekt working with Unreal Engine 5 for the next Witcher games, Kiciński said the skills being learned now will hopefully lead to a "smoother" development cycle for the subsequent two games. That said, he still expected the following games to take three years each to develop. When asked if Polaris is likely more than three years away, Kiciński replied in the affirmative.
Later in the call, Senior vice president of business development Michał Nowakowski added that it normally takes four to five years for CD Projekt to develop a game alongside new engine technology. The hope with Unreal Engine 5 is that development will be slightly faster since it's an established engine.
As for Sirius and Canis Majoris, the other two Witcher games announced yesterday, CD Projekt's leadership were cagey with the details. Neither were described as "hardcore RPGs" like the rest of the Witcher series, but neither are they any less than the triple-A games fans have come to expect from CD Projekt. Both were said to be "ambitious" projects that wil appeal to different audiences.
Our first clue for Sirius might have come from a new job ad for developer The Molasses Flood, which is looking for a level designer with experience in "procedurally-generated environments."
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