As CD Projekt Red looks back at the beginning of 2022, a handful of announcements have been made in regards to the Witcher, as well as the future of the company. The big announcement is that the upcoming Witcher title (tentatively titled The Witcher 4 due to the lack of an official name) has concluded its research phase and has now entered the pre-development phase, as they will be focusing on hashing out the story, characters, gameplay elements and more.
In a blogpost listed over on the official CD Projekt Red website, they have gone on to state that they are very excited to see what the future of the Witcher series holds, especially due to their strategic partnership with Epic Games to develop the newest Witcher game with the Unreal 5 Engine instead of the company's in-house engine, REDEngine.
“We are very eager to revisit the universe which has shaped our history to such an extent. We have recently concluded the research phase for the first game in the new Witcher saga, which means that from now on further development expenditures will be capitalized on our balance sheet” –Adam Kiciński, CEO of the CD PROJEKT Group
Because the project has just entered the Pre-Production phase, it very well means that a full release of the game will be several years away, so Witcher fans should not expect any details regarding the game for at least another year or so. Despite this, many fans have been kept busy trying to figure out what the future Witcher title will hold, as the single teaser image has sparked many fan theories and discussions, such as the possibility that the newest Witcher game could have Siri as the leading protagonist instead of Geralt. Regardless of who will be the star of the game, many are hopeful that the development for this title will be smoother than usual thanks to Unreal Engine 5.