Project Polaris, colloquially known as The Witcher 4, is now developer CD Projekt Red's primary focus since Phantom Liberty sent Cyberpunk 2077 out on a high note, and anticipation is high. The game's director, Sebastien Kalemba, has shed further light on the project without divulging specifics.
In an interview with Italian outlet Leganerd and translated by Wccftech, Kalema says the goal with the next Witcher is nothing less than to break the boundaries of the RPG genre all over again, something predecessor The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt did quite handily when it launched back in 2015. He says:
"We must follow a very specific path and innovate on that. At the same time, it's clear that we have to try to appease a new public. The Witcher 4 won't be out for some years, and it'll be a long time since the previous one, so we cannot just target the audience already fond of the saga. We must also build a new community."
Video games don't exist in a vacuum, and plenty of titles inspired by The Witcher 3 have come and gone in the intervening years. That means CDPR needs to get ahead of the next significant shift in open-world roleplaying games beyond the current meta, which is currently still digesting the Elden Ring-tinged hands-off approach to exploration we all know and love.
Kalemba says the next Witcher will be an "excellent entry point for many players" before throwing down the gauntlet: "Our priority is always trying to break boundaries. We want to go beyond them. We want to try and do something new compared to what's currently in roleplaying games, especially since we work within that genre and target RPG fans. I can't say too much, as you can guess, but the idea is to build something that surpasses The Witcher 3, telling a more intense story and crafting a more intense gameplay as well."
If Kalemba wants our take, a massive focus should be on character interactions and dialogue, which just underwent a genre-shaking seismic revolution thanks to Baldur's Gate 3. Even the vaunted Starfield was made to look decidedly last-gen compared to Larian's verbose leviathan, and in our estimation, that's a bar CDPR needs to clear at a minimum.
What are your hopes for The Witcher 4? While away the long winter ahead in the Kaer Mohren of comments section below.
[source leganerd.com]
Comments 19
Day 1 buy.
Day 1000 play until everything gets patched.
Same PR crap as CP2077. Never again CD Projekt Red.
I'm keeping my expectations low, but after Phantom Liberty and CDPR saying that the same devs are going to be working on Witcher 4 I have some hope that it will succeed.
I want a map which genuinely takes an hour to wander across with RDR 2 vibrancy and life within it.
Considering the abysmal state Cyberpunk was released, I'll wait until it's been properly patched and then play it. Not buying into the hype again, you fooled me once CD Projekt Red.
I'll buy this game 3 years after release. Complete, all DLC's, all/most bugs squashed, GOTY edition, etc. Lesson learned from Cyberpunk.
@Nepp67 Devs have never been the problem at CDPR, problem is upper managment and pressure from shareholders and the board. That's why Cyberpunk was such a mess when it released.
It’s years away, they need to stop with the unjustified hype. They’re going to set themselves up again, just quietly cook.
And here comes the hate train...
Looking forward to this 2027 release
I can imagine using something like chatgpt (eg llama2) or ai voice synthesis to change some of the interaction models.
1. You say your name to the computer at start and then all characters could use it in-game.
2. Minor characters could use llama2 to generate non-repeating dialogue with voice synthesis and allow for more dynamic responses with players. That said, I’m not convinced this is desirable for main characters.
I really hope it's like CP2077. A total wreck at launch that gets patched eventually. This way we'll have some fun news, the game will cost 20€ barely 6 weeks after release and be great a year after launch.
Didn't the witcher 3 get like 60 something individual updates across 7 years 🤔
This gonna be cyberpunk thing, we wait 10 years only to have a half finished bug mess or they actually gonna put in effort and polish it good and working order, if it comes like cyberpunk CDPR will be definitely dead in the water, they bearly recovered after cyberpunk
Others have said it, but starting the hype train years before release is what sabotaged Cyberpunk 2077, they really need to learn. Confirming The Witcher 4 is being made is enough for now.
I appreciate that CDPR recognizes this. I played (or tried to play) Witcher 3 several years after its release. I had high expectations due to the copious awards and gushing fanbase. Unfortunately, I didn’t click with the game, and I think part of that is the fact that many of the gameplay and storytelling innovations that CDPR used for W3 have now been done a hundred times over and improved on in many ways in other games. I felt like I’d played better versions of the genre already by the time I got to it.
I think a sequel can get away with it when it comes out relatively quickly after the previous installment, like Spider-Man 2, GoW Ragnarok, HFW, AC Valhalla, Jedi Survivor, etc, etc, ‘name your iterative sequel’… But when it’s been a long time like 10-12 years by the time W4 comes out, you can’t roll out just a prettier version of the same stuff and expect to engage a new player base. Many people would buy W4 at release no matter what it was, but many of us will be hoping for something truly modern by then. Like the article says, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great example. Also Elden Ring might be another recent game in that regard of reinventing a franchise. GoW 2018 would be another which came out and changed itself from the former games enough to engage a new player base. Not only does technology and gameplay options evolve, but the gaming community changes, matures and gets older, and new younger players have different expectations as well.
nobody cares about open world anymore please just give us a good long story. the witcher 3 felt good because even ***** side quest had good story, not because it was nice to do the same ***** all over again 500 times. had it not been for the stories, we would have probably not done all those side quests.
It needs to have Geralt no newbie
Different and breaking boundaries is a little scary. I mean nobody wants it completely the same but let's don't go too crazy.
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