CD Projekt Red is significantly scaling up their efforts on The Witcher 4, currently referred to by its codename Polaris. With the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty now released, a substantial portion of the team is transitioning to the new project. The latest earnings report of CD Projekt Red reveals that approximately half of their development workforce, which equates to nearly 330 developers, are actively working on The Witcher 4 as of October 31, 2023.

The company is anticipating to increase the development team to over 400 members by mid-2024. This information reveals a rapid growth, considering that by July 31, 2023, the project had 260 team members involved. The expansion of the team underscores the ambitious scale of The Witcher 4 development.

Despite the ramped-up resources, the release of The Witcher sequel is not immediately on the horizon. CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński has indicated that the game is at least three years away from release, stating that the team is also working on developing new technology within Unreal Engine 5, which could lengthen the development time.

Announced in March 2022, The Witcher 4 still remains in the early stages of production. CD Projekt Red maintains that creating a game alongside the development of new technologies usually spans four to five years, although they hope to progress faster with this title. However, no official timeline for release or detailed development updates have been provided since the game entered pre-production in May 2022.

With high player expectations and CD Projekt Red's ambitious scope for The Witcher 4 using Unreal Engine 5, the gaming community will have to be patient for the next installment in this beloved RPG series.