The Witcher 4 is being worked on by nearly half of CD Projekt Red, the studio’s biggest development team at this time.
According to CD Projekt Red’s latest earnings report, the next installment in The Witcher series – codenamed Polaris – currently has almost 330 developers at work on it, which is just under 50% of the staff (via VGC).
CDPR CEO Adam Kiciński also confirmed during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference on November 28 that “It’s expected to grow to over 400 by mid-next year.”
Polaris was announced in March 2022, and its development team reportedly grew to 260 members as of July 31, 2023. The report also states that as of the end of October, over 25% – 220 developers – are in transfer as they move away from working on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and the recently announced Ultimate Edition, to join the Polaris team.
Additionally, it seems there’s a small percentage of developers working on “other projects” as well as a separate Witcher spin-off, Project Sirius, alongside The Molasses Flood – the studio behind The Flame in the Flood and Drake Hollow – which was acquired by CDPR in 2021.
Alongside Polaris and Sirius, there are three other games in the works at the studio, including projects Orion, Canis Majoris, and Hadar.
Orion is the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and will be made by the Phantom Liberty team, while Canis Majoris intends to be a new “full-fledged” Witcher game, but separate from Polaris, which will kick off a new saga for the series.
As for Hadar, not much is known, only that it’s an “entirely distinct IP, created from scratch within CDPR.”
In the report, the studio also revealed new sales for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, claiming that the expansion has now surpassed 4.3 million sales in its first two months of launch.
If you’re looking for some more narratively gripping games, then check out our list for the best story games and the best single-player games available to play right now.