CD Projekt Red has come a long way since it released the original The Witcher game in 2007. 15 years later, the studio has grown to span two continents and produce not just multiple franchises, but multiple games within those franchises at once.
While we knew it was planning to develop two games simultaneously in the future, the Poland-based developer kicked down the doors to the AAA gaming space in October 2022 by announcing four new The Witcher games, a new Cyberpunk, and another all-new project, all at once.
However, the information explosion has given rise to some complicated ideas, with lots of numbers, code names and dates. CD Projekt Red’s next three releases will be The Witcher games, for example, but they’re not the new trilogy. It is very confusing.
To be aware of everything, IGN has put together this list of all the CD Projekt Red games that are in development, as well as what we know about the release schedule. The studio has also said that it is opening up to collaboration with outside studios for mobile games based on its franchises, but as nothing concrete has been announced yet, these will not appear on the list.
Most of the games just have code names (which are named after stars, because CD Projekt Red is “reaching for the stars”), but we’ve also explained in simpler terms what each game actually is.
Polaris (The Witcher 4)
CD Projekt Red confirmed that a new The Witcher game that would mark the start of a new saga was in development in March 2022, and while it’s not officially called The Witcher 4, you can think of it as the real next game of The Witcher.
The new game, codenamed Polaris, won’t be out until 2025 at the earliest, having entered pre-production in May 2022. It’s also being developed on Unreal Engine 5, a new effort for CD Projekt Red that basically it forces them to create everything from scratch and to lay a new foundation for their games in the future. However, it will be one of two upcoming games released by CD Projekt Red.
At the moment there are no real details of the history of Polaris, although we know that it will be the first game in a new trilogy and its preview images show a medallion from The Witcher that represents a lynx, which makes many speculate that Ciri, from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, she will be the new protagonist (since Geralt is officially out of the game).
The latest information on Polaris is that JCD Projekt Red’s Jason Slama will direct.. Slama has recently been director of the game Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and has promised that there will be no crunch in the study after the controversy with Cyberpunk 2077.
Sirius, the game of Molasses Flood
Another The Witcher game, codenamed Sirius, is in development at The Molasses Floodthe developer of The Flame in the Flood and Drake Hollow that was purchased by CD Projekt Red in October 2021. It is the only other game, alongside Polaris, that is currently in development under the CD Projekt Red umbrella (outside of the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion), although it is still in pre-production.
The game will have single player elements, such as story and quests, but will also include multiplayer components, and CD Projekt Red has explicitly confirmed that players will be able to play together. Although Sirius is set in The Witcher universe and is being developed with the support of CD Projekt Red, won’t follow the open world RPG formula de Polaris o The Witcher 3.
Instead, it’s “aimed at a broader audience,” and while we don’t know exactly what that means, CD Projekt Red’s Michał Nowakowski said it’s “definitely not a smaller game” and “definitely not a mobile game.” “. Instead, it seeks to appeal to people who are interested in The Witcher franchise, perhaps because of the Netflix series or the books, but they are not interested in playing a “hard role-playing game”he added.
No further details have been given, but we can tell from various Molasses Flood job listings that Sirius probably will feature stylized art and some sort of procedurally generated levels with level up and a combat system, which perhaps suggests a survival or rogue type game. It’s unclear when we’ll know more, but Sirius will be one of three upcoming CD Projekt Red games.
Canis Majoris, another open world RPG from The Witcher
Polaris is kicking off another trilogy of traditional Witcher games, but they won’t be the only “full” installments on the horizon. Canis Majoris is the code name for another AAA The Witcher RPG with story, but this one will only be published by CD Projekt Red, not developed.
A currently unknown developer, led by industry veterans who have worked on previous The Witcher games, will instead create a new installment in Unreal Engine 5 using the same set of tools as Polaris. CD Projekt Red Chairman and Joint CEO Adam Kiciński has confirmed that Canis Majoris is coming after Polaris, which means it’s also at least three years away from seeing it, and probably more.
Although at the moment we don’t know who is doing it, yes we know who doesn’t. Rebel Wolves (a studio made up of the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and other former CD Projekt Red employees) has confirmed that it is not the mysterious studio behind the spin-off after it was harassed by waiting fans. that their next AAA dark fantasy game would be the new The Witcher game.
Marcin Jefimow (as an executive producer for CD Projekt Red who left the company in September 2022) was also expected, but has confirmed to IGN that neither he nor his new team are involved. However, we may not have to wait too long until the mystery study is revealed, as Kiciński also commented that CD Projekt Red will share more information “soon, very soon”.
Orion, the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077
Despite making it clear in the past that more Cyberpunk games would be on the way, CD Projekt Red has officially confirmed its plans for a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. Codenamed Orion, the game is not in development yet as it requires “further team growth” first, something CD Projekt Red is taking very seriously as it expands fully into America.
aptly titled CD Projekt Red North Americathis new official studio will be based in Boston (alongside, but separate from, The Molasses Flood), but will also encompass its Vancouver team, acquired in March 2021.
CD Projekt Red North America will be the main studio behind the development of Orionand while some talent, like Cyberpunk 2077’s lead quest designer, Paweł Saskorelocating from Poland, a significant surge in hiring is expected, as CD Projekt Red CFO Piotr Nielubowicz commented that it’s “safe to assume” that 350-500 developers will be needed to create Orion.
Hadar, a new original IP from CD Projekt Red
CD Projekt Red has officially started work on your own original IP after developing games for existing properties for nearly 20 years. Very little has been said about what this game, codenamed Hadar, will be, but it has been under consideration for a few years with official initial concept work beginning in late 2021.
Nevertheless, Hadar is likely to be years and years away, perhaps even the furthest of all the CD Projekt Red games we currently know of, as the foundations of the new setting are still in a creative exploration phase. There’s been no suggestion of what it will be about, but CD Projekt Red has remained committed to its brand of being a studio that creates AAA, story-driven RPGs, which means Hadar will likely fall into that category.
However, the studio has said that it plans to include multiplayer elements in most of its future titles, and its own IP may be the perfect place to explore this concept without restrictions.
The Witcher 5 y The Witcher 6
The only confirmed games without a codename, The Witcher 5 and The Witcher 6 (in the absence of official titles) were the last two games confirmed by CD Projekt Red in October 2022. Very little has been said about the games, although they will conclude the new trilogy of The Witcher that begins with Polaris, and likewise can be seen as mainline The Witcher games.
The trilogy marks a new saga for The Witcher, as it moves away from its previous protagonist, Geralt, whose story was wrapped up in Andrzej Sapkowski’s original The Witcher books and the first trilogy of The Witcher games.
We don’t know much more than what has already been said about Polaris, but CD Projekt Red has at least offered a schedule for these last two games. At the moment, he plans release both games within six years after Polariswhich means that a new game in The Witcher trilogy would be released every three years on average.
It’s unknown when Polaris will launch, of course, but since it won’t launch until at least 2025, the new trilogy will run until at least 2031. Although three games in six years seems ambitious, CD Projekt Red is currently working on creating the foundation for the trilogy within Unreal Engine 5 that will be used in all three, meaning the last two will be slightly easier to develop.
CD Projekt Red also released the first three The Witcher games over eight years at a fraction of their current development capabilities, with the original releasing in 2007 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt bringing the trilogy to a close in 2015.
