Such was the size and scope of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt that CD Projekt Red currently has no plans for a direct sequel, with CEO Marcin Iwinski stating that the RPG franchise “deserves a rest” before fast-tracking The Witcher 4.
Speaking in an interview with Game Informer, Iwinski revealed that, after a decade spent building and perfecting the lush world of The Witcher, it’s now time for a change of pace within the Polish studio, one which will shifting resources over to the long-gestating futuristic title, Cyberpunk 2077.
“Honestly speaking, we have not,” Iwinski said. “It deserves some rest. The past 10 years the team has been working on swords and castles and medieval Slavic monsters. So I think it’s time for some guns, androids, and some ammo. And a necropolis. So this is what we’ll be working on. We definitely are not annualizing a franchise or anything–it’s about the experience. The world of The Witcher is gigantic and it’s great to tell these stories, but I don’t know when this will happen.”
As Iwinski alludes to, part and parcel of The Witcher‘s success as a franchise is that it’s built with love and care – an approach that rules out annualization in favor of respecting the series and its audience. Besides, Wild Hunt was a bona fide sales hit for CD Projekt Red, and it’s refreshing to see that the studio will now branch off into a whole new genre with Cyberpunk 2077, allowing excitement to build for The Witcher 4 organically over time.
Long before The Witcher 4 becomes a reality, CD Projekt Red will bolster the already staggering amount of content in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt with two mainline expansions. Comparable in size to The Witcher II, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine will comprise around 30 hours of new content. The former will be released in October.