"The Witcher 4" is already in pre-production - the game is being handled by more than 60% (400 people) of the CD Projekt team

The Witcher 4 is gradually approaching the release - CD Projekt reported for the year 2023, which became the second best in the entire history of the famous Polish video game developer.

"Witcher 4" and other future games

The new "Witcher" has moved to the pre-production stage - as of February 29, 2024, more than 60% (400 employees) of the CD Projekt team were already working on the game. According to the plan, the project will enter full (active) development phase in the second half of 2024.

Recall that the next part of the famous Witcher series was announced for the first time in March 2022 under the codename Polaris. It is being developed on the Unreal Engine 5 engine by the internal team of CD Projekt and it seems to be the beginning of a new trilogy.

Other announced games by the studio involve significantly fewer employees. The remake of the first "Witcher" (Canis Majoris) on Unreal Engine 5 by Fool's Theory studio, a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 with the codename Orion, and the first game by CD Projekt RED based on their own franchise (Hadar) are all currently in the "conceptual design" stage.

Another interesting news from the report is that CD Projekt is considering licensing the IP of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher to third-party studios to create mobile games. No specifics yet.

General indicators

In 2023, CD Projekt Red earned 1.23 billion zlotys ($307.65 million) - 29% more than in 2022. Net profit reached 481 million zlotys ($120.3 million), which exceeds the 2022 result by 39%. As mentioned earlier, 2023 was the second best year in the entire history of CDPR - net profitability reached 39%.

The lion's share of the money in 2023 came from the sales of Cyberpunk 2077 - 826 million zlotys ($206.6 million) in total. The total sales of Cyberpunk 2077 together with the "Phantom Liberty" add-on exceeded $750 million. Financial reserves grew to 1.3 billion zlotys, allowing CD Projekt Red to achieve a "safe state."

The total sales of CD Projekt Red games exceeded 100 million copies, with over 75 million from the Witcher trilogy and another 25 million from Cyberpunk 2077. The company is confident that the action-RPG will continue to sell well for a very long time, similar to the third "Witcher," breaking into the top 10 best-selling games in history.