CD Projekt Red has had quite a busy year, with its notable release being Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty. With the game out and development and support beginning to wind down, CD Projekt Red has confirmed that many of its team members have moved on to The Witcher’s new game, codenamed Polaris.
This was confirmed via the studio’s third quarterly earning presentation, where they have now allocated a good chunk of their team to work on the next Witcher game.
As you can see, previously, the team was mostly divided between Phantom Liberty and the new Witcher game, with an estimate of around 30% working on the new Witcher game, 40-45% on Cybperunk and its expansion, the rest working on other projects. This has shifted since October, with roughly 30% of CD Projekt Red developers working on the Ultimate Edition of Cyberpunk 2077 while in a “Devs in transfer” status. This means that as work finishes on the Ultime Edition, some developers will be allocated to either the new Witcher game or other projects the studio is working on.
As of October, a little under 50% of developers make up CD Projekt Red working on the next Witcher game, making it the biggest project in development at the studio.
Since these numbers are reported from October, and the Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition launches on December 5, chances are that the number for the new Witcher is over 50% today. We expect a significant jump to that percentage during the following quarterly reporting.
Though a good chunk of development is now focused on the new Witcher, don’t take this as a sign that we’ll be seeing it anytime soon. Afterall, it did take nearly a decade for Cyberpunk 2077 to release. Still, it’s good news to see that the studio is now putting more resources into its next project, and hopefully, development will run smoothly for it. I for one cannot wait to see what the studio has cooking after the incredible experience they delivered with Phantom Liberty.
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Hopefully the new Witcher game releases within a timly manner and doesn’t take a decade.