The Witcher 4, 5 & 6 release dates revealed - but fans are not convinced for this reason

CD Projekt Red bosses have given an update on the release plan for The Witcher 4, 5 & 6 but fans are not convinced by the studio's ambition in the slightest.

CD Projekt Red hosted a quarterly earnings call, giving shareholders and stakeholders an update on the performance of the studio, including its financials and what it's working on.

After a presentation from studio executives, investors were given the chance to ask questions with one asking for detail about the development process of The Witcher 4.

Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO, said: "The only thing we're commenting is that we're not launching [The Witcher 4] in 2026. There's nothing out of the ordinary, I'd say, in that area happening with The Witcher 4 - it's just full-scale production proceeding at its pace, as per our internal plans."

The Witcher 4 is planned to be the opening game of a new trilogy and Nowakowski was asked if the games that follow The Witcher 4 "can be delivered on a shorter and more predictable cadence".

"I do believe that further games should be delivered in a shorter period of time," Nowakowski responded. "As we had stated before, our plan still is to launch the whole trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that would mean we would plan to have a shorter development time between The Witcher 4 and The Witcher 5, between The Witcher 5 and The Witcher 6 and so on."

Nowakowski's comments were reposted into the Gaming Subreddit and fans in the comments are not convinced CD Projekt Red will meet these ambitions because of how long it takes to develop AAA games, especially with Cyberpunk 2 also in development.

One mocked: "Lmfao there is no way this will happen. With this and Cyberpunk 2?"

"Yeah... I'll believe it when I see it," a second commented.

A third said: "The only thing I can think of is a lot of the assets are able to be re-used... But even then I think it's super unrealistic. 3x AAA games (not to mention Cyberpunk 2) in six years? I just don't see it."

A fourth theorised: "If that's the case, I expect The Witcher 5 & 6 to be more akin to the Blood and Wine expansion for The Witcher 3 or the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk. Larger in scope than those expansions but not as big of a change from The Witcher 1, 2 & 3. That's to say I expect them to be highly iterative including the same mechanics, enemies, animations, art assets, AI, tech, armours and weapons, progression systems and more. But just adding more with a new map and new quests. Essentially large standalone full price expansions."

And a fifth countered: "If they do have a lot of people with UE5 (Unreal Engine 5) experience they have hired, great, but this will still be their first UE game, any version, shipped as a studio, ever. Still, I don't think this goal will be impossible. They can reuse much from the first (fourth) game in such a short timeframe without anything aging out and that would definitely work as long as long as there's enough bespoke to support the story going forward."

Elsewhere from indy100:

• The Witcher 4: Ciri actor Ciara Berkeley speaks about her role so far
• The Witcher 4: Series author reveals involvement in upcoming game and fans are unanimous

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