The Witcher 4 is about to enter full production phase, has over 400 staff working on it

During its latest earnings call, CD Projekt RED had another update today on the development progress of the next Witcher experience. The highly-anticipated RPG, codenamed Polaris, is now almost ready to enter full production according to the studio, and it revealed that over one third of its staff is now working on the project.

"Work on Polaris is progressing," says CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski in a separate press release from earlier today. "Its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the pre-production phase."

As of July 31, 2024, the number of CD Projekt RED developers working on Orion has grown to 410 out of 639 total staff. In late last year, that staff number was at 330. The Unreal Engine 5-powered game is supposed to kick off a brand-new trilogy, but so far only a teaser image has been revealed about its direction, seen above.

“The Polaris team is maintaining the right scale to enter the production phase very soon, while our work on both announced and unannounced projects is steadily progressing,” Nowakowski echoed during the earnings call.

Nowakowski also added that CD Projekt's Boston-based studio had a "busy period" in the first half of the year as it was "laying the groundwork for Project Orion." For those in the dark, this is the codename attached to the next entry set in the Cyberpunk universe.

Last we heard of it, the company was revealing that a number of industry veterans with experience in the AAA games space was joining the Orion development team. This included building up the team with staff from high-profile studios like Blizzard, Remedy, IO Interactive, Massive, Arkane, BioWare, Obsidian, and others.

While it may be a while till we see a new game materialize from the studio, don't forget that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt received official modding tools earlier this year. Saying that there's already quite a few major and interesting mod projects in the works for the title, the studio thanked fans for "bringing new strength" to the The Witcher 3 just as it prepares to turn 10 years old.

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