CD Projekt Red to ramp into ‘production phase’ of new Witcher game this year

Plus, Phantom Liberty has been nominated for an award.

The Witcher 3: Geralt riding a horse as he looks out into a foggy valley.

With Phantom Liberty now done and dusted, CD Projekt Red is keen to get cracking on some new projects. With that in-mind, it seems the studio is now looking to make some headway on the new Witcher saga.

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That’s according to a recent report from Reuters. The developer’s joint CEO, Adam Badowski, tells the publication that the team is aiming to start the “production phase” on the first entry in the next set of Witcher games, currently codenamed Polaris.

Badowski goes on to say that the company would like to “have around 400 people working on the project by the middle of the year.” CDPR is also at the “conceptual phase” regarding the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077, with around 80 people expected to be working on that game by the end of 2024. CD Projekt Red has also apparently considered multiplayer elements for the new Cyberpunk, but isn’t discussing details right now.

Win some, lose some

On top of this, a recent post on Twitter announced that Phantom Liberty has been nominated for “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project” at the 22nd Annual Visual Effects Society Award.

The Cyberpunk DLC was not only the culmination of a lot of work fixing the glaring issues that plagued the game, but it was also something of a swansong for the dystopian RPG. CD Projekt Red may well take what harsh lessons it’s learned and apply them to the sequel.

However, the Reuters report goes on to say that the studio may be looking into artificial intelligence for some of its future releases. Michal Nowakowsk said he thinks “AI is something that can help improve certain processes in game production,” but added that it couldn’t “replace people.” Make of that what you will.

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Andrew Heaton
Andrew has been a gamer since the 17th century Restoration period. He now writes for a number of online publications, contributing news and other articles. He does not own a powdered wig.
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