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CD Projekt RED announced a few days ago that Cyberpunk 2077 support is practically over, and although there is a possibility that they will add small updates in the future, the Polish studio seems to be already immersed in the development of their next works. Project Polaris and Projet Orion are the two titles that the studio has in hand, and both belong to the universes of The Witcher and Cyberpunk, respectively.
Regarding the new The Witcher, CD Projekt RED recently announced that they already have more than 400 people actively working on this new installment of the franchise, despite the fact that the project is still in its pre-production stage. Of course, the studio's intention is to enter the full production stage throughout this year. And from the studio their ideas for the game are very clear.
The new The Witcher will offer things never seen before in the studio's work
Speaking at a recent Q&A with investors (via Rock Paper Shotgun), the studio's co-CEO Michał Nowakowski talked about the inherent risks of making a new game, and the complications involved in attempts to innovation. Regarding this, the manager assured that the new The Witcher will draw heavily on the previous works of the franchise, but assures that it will be something that “we have never done before.”
When it comes to the risks of innovative elements, making a new game is always a creative risk, especially because we're trying to push new boundaries and explore new fields, do something we haven't really done before.
I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't expect The Witcher 3 with a new skin, somehow. Of course, we're building on what came before and what we've learned, but we'll be adding new gameplay elements and new mechanics that you haven't seen in our previous games. I would say that doing those things is always a risk. It's not just about repeating what was done before.
“95% of the work is thrown away”: Cyberpunk 2077 developers scrapped almost all ideas for the game's side quests
we arexbox.com
For now, details about the new The Witcher have not been reported, especially due to that element that we mentioned previously of not having entered into full production at the moment. However, what we do know is that the game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, unlike the studio's previous titles, which had their own graphics engine.