CD Projekt Red Is Promising a Witcher Trilogy in Six Years, and I Want Whatever They're Smoking

News
Written By NLM Team

CD Projekt Red just looked at their own release history, laughed, and decided to promise the impossible anyway.

We all know CD Projekt Red has a complicated relationship with calendars. But in their latest Q3 earnings call they doubled down on a release schedule that sounds like pure fantasy.

According to a transcript spotted by TweakTown, Co-CEO Michal Nowakowski confirmed that the plan is still to launch the entire new trilogy within a six-year period.

That clock starts ticking the moment The Witcher 4 (Project Polaris) hits shelves. That means they plan to ship a massive, open-world RPG sequel every three years, tops. For the studio that took nearly a decade to fix Cyberpunk, that is a terrifyingly ambitious goal.

The Unreal Engine 5 Gamble

So how do they plan to pull off this development speedrun? The answer is Unreal Engine 5.

Nowakowski claims the switch from their proprietary REDengine to UE5 is the magic bullet. They have apparently been tinkering with UE5 for four years already, and they are "very happy" with the results.

The logic is sound on paper. By using a standardized engine, they don't have to rebuild the tech stack for every game. The Witcher 4 builds the foundation, and the sequels just build on top of it. It’s the Assassin’s Creed model applied to high-end RPGs.

The Long Wait for Ciri

We know this saga is likely centering on Ciri, which is fantastic. But don't hold your breath for the start of her journey.

CDPR explicitly confirmed that The Witcher 4 won't be out in 2026. That puts the start date at 2027 at the absolute earliest.

If we do the math, that means this "six-year plan" won't wrap up until 2033. We are talking about a release schedule that extends well into the lifespan of the PlayStation 6 (or 7?).

Skepticism is Healthy

I’m with the Reddit user who saw this news and immediately commented, "Lmfao there is no way this will happen."

With Cyberpunk 2 (Project Orion) also accelerating development, CDPR is spinning a lot of plates. I want to believe in the efficient, UE5-powered future of the studio. But until I see a game launch without a public apology letter attached to it, I’m going to keep my expectations in check.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

NLM Team
Previous

Someone Already Got Metroid Prime 4, and They Say the Annoying New Character Barely Matters
Next

The EU Wants to Fix Mobile Games, but Developers Warn They Might Just Break the Industry Instead