The Witcher 4: Team Expansion, Tech Shift, and What It Means

CD Projekt Red is quietly transforming the next mainline Witcher game from a distant promise into its central development focus. Over the past year the studio has significantly grown its workforce, shifted to new technology, and clarified how this RPG fits into a wider roadmap that includes a Cyberpunk sequel and an entirely new IP. All of this paints a picture of The Witcher 4 as a long-term pillar rather than a one-off sequel.

Using recent company updates and industry reporting as a starting point, this article breaks down who is working on the project, how the new engine changes development, what CD Projekt Red's strategy looks like after Cyberpunk 2077, and what players can realistically expect from The Witcher 4 in the coming years.

Where The Witcher 4 Sits in CD Projekt Red's Roadmap

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that the next Witcher title is not just an isolated game but the opening chapter of a new saga in the franchise. Internally code-named Polaris, this project is intended to kick off a trilogy of large-scale RPGs set in the Witcher universe.

The studio's publicly shared strategy outlines three main pillars for its future lineup:

• Polaris (The Witcher 4) – the first entry in a new Witcher trilogy.
• Orion (Cyberpunk 2) – a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 developed by a separate team.
• Hadar – a new IP built from the ground up, still in early conceptual stages.

This multi-project push marks a shift from CD Projekt Red's earlier approach of focusing almost entirely on a single flagship game at a time. The company has opened new studios and is actively recruiting to support concurrent developments, but the data shared through earnings briefings makes it clear that The Witcher 4 remains the primary focus.

A Rapidly Growing Team Focused on One RPG

The most striking indication of The Witcher 4's importance is how many people are now assigned to it. According to coverage of CD Projekt Red's financial updates, the studio has hired more than 220 new employees in the past year, with the majority of these developers reportedly joining the Polaris team. GameSpot, summarizing the company's investor presentation, notes that as of February 28 in the most recent reporting period, 499 developers were working on The Witcher 4, up from 447 a few months earlier and 411 a year prior.¹

That makes Polaris the single largest project in the company's history. For comparison, the number of developers on Cyberpunk 2 currently sits far lower, signaling that The Witcher 4 is not just in pre-production but firmly in full development. This growth aligns with CD Projekt Red's stated plan to scale up the project to match its ambition and to avoid the production bottlenecks and overtime issues that marred Cyberpunk 2077's launch.²

How Team Distribution Looks Today

Based on recent disclosures and reporting, a high-level snapshot of team allocation looks roughly like this:

While the exact numbers will shift as hiring continues, the trend is clear: The Witcher 4 is where most of the studio's development effort currently lives.

From REDengine to Unreal Engine 5: A Strategic Tech Pivot

One of the most consequential decisions CD Projekt Red has made for its future games is the move from its in-house REDengine to Unreal Engine 5 for Polaris and subsequent Witcher projects. The studio announced a multi-year partnership with Epic Games, describing it as the foundation for a "new technology framework" for open-world RPGs.³

Why the Switch Matters

Using Unreal Engine 5 brings several potential advantages:

• Shared technology base: The engine is widely used across the industry, which makes it easier to hire experienced developers and reuse established workflows.
• Open-world tools: Unreal Engine 5 provides systems like World Partition and Nanite that are designed for large, detailed environments, which suits the Witcher franchise's sprawling maps.
• Reduced tech debt: By partnering with Epic, CD Projekt Red can offload some of the burden of engine maintenance and focus more on content, storytelling, and quest design.

The engine shift also ties into CD Projekt Red's broader goal of avoiding the sort of technical instability that hurt Cyberpunk 2077's initial release, especially on older hardware. Epic Games has stressed that Unreal Engine 5 is built to support high-fidelity visuals and scalable performance across platforms, which should give CD Projekt Red more predictable technical foundations.³

Risks of Adopting a New Engine

At the same time, moving to a new engine is not risk-free. Teams must relearn tools, adapt pipelines, and build internal expertise. Developers who spent years pushing REDengine to its limits now have to translate that knowledge into a different environment. This is likely one reason the studio is hiring so aggressively: it needs both Unreal veterans and time for training before the advantages of the new tech fully pay off.

Lessons From Cyberpunk 2077 and a Slower, More Cautious Rollout

The scale of The Witcher 4 and the deliberate approach to its development can be better understood in light of CD Projekt Red's experience with Cyberpunk 2077. That game launched in 2020 to strong sales but also widespread criticism over bugs, performance issues on last-generation consoles, and missing or scaled-back features.

Regulators, including the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, investigated the launch, and CD Projekt faced lawsuits from investors. Over time, however, the studio released numerous patches and expansions; the Phantom Liberty expansion and the major 2.0 update were widely seen as a substantial turnaround, earning improved critical reception and player sentiment.⁴

CD Projekt Red's leadership has repeatedly emphasized that it wants to apply these lessons to Polaris. That means:

• Avoiding overpromising features too early.
• Building longer, more robust testing phases into the schedule.
• Restructuring teams and pipelines to support large multi-platform projects more efficiently.

This more cautious stance also explains why official communication around The Witcher 4 has been relatively reserved. The studio has shared high-level information about headcount, engine choice, and long-term plans, but has not rushed into gameplay reveals or detailed feature lists.

What We Can Reasonably Expect From The Witcher 4

Although CD Projekt Red is keeping detailed story and gameplay information under wraps, a combination of official statements, investor communication, and industry reporting allows for a grounded sense of what The Witcher 4 is aiming to be.

Core Identity: A Single-Player Open-World RPG

The company describes Polaris as a single-player, story-driven, open-world RPG in line with the studio's existing strengths. That means:

• Large, explorable regions rather than strictly linear levels.
• Quest chains with branching choices and consequences.
• Character progression with skills, gear, and build variety.

There has been speculation about multiplayer elements, largely because CD Projekt Red has said publicly that many of its future titles will experiment with some form of online functionality. However, the official description of Polaris focuses squarely on the single-player experience, and the studio has not confirmed any specific co-op or competitive modes. If multiplayer does appear, it will likely be an auxiliary feature rather than the centerpiece of the design.

World Design and New Regions of the Continent

CD Projekt Red has hinted that The Witcher 4 will explore new regions of its fantasy world, expanding beyond the locales seen in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, while maintaining a similar overall scale. This approach aligns with the idea of a new saga: the team can introduce fresh political factions, cultures, and monsters without discarding the established lore fans already love.

Unreal Engine 5's open-world features should help the studio make these regions feel more seamless. Systems like dynamic streaming and global illumination promise fewer loading interruptions and more cohesive lighting across large landscapes, though the final result will depend on the studio's implementation and optimization.

Improved Player Agency and Quest Structure

In its post-mortems and public comments, CD Projekt Red has repeatedly highlighted the importance of player choice and narrative agency. For Polaris, developers have suggested they want to:

• Offer more flexibility in how players build their characters.
• Structure quests so that choices have clearer, more impactful consequences over time.
• Reduce friction around traversal and exploration, potentially with smoother horseback travel and fewer backtracking bottlenecks.

These goals naturally follow from lessons learned on both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, where some players felt that certain choices didn't pay off as strongly as advertised or that late-game content funneled them into similar outcomes.

Timeline: Why Patience Will Be Essential

One recurring message from CD Projekt Red is that The Witcher 4 is still a long way from release. Company executives have stated in earnings calls that the game will not launch in 2026, and external analysis suggests that 2027 is the earliest plausible window, with the possibility of a later date depending on how production progresses.¹

Given the scope of the project, the engine transition, and the studio's renewed focus on quality, it is reasonable to expect a lengthy development cycle.

Why We May See Long Quiet Periods

CD Projekt Red has indicated that it wants to avoid a prolonged hype cycle followed by delays and cut features. Instead, the company is likely to:

• Keep marketing relatively quiet during early and mid-development.
• Share more substantial reveals only when key systems and content are locked in.
• Align trailers and previews closer to release to manage expectations.

For players, this means that months may pass without major updates, even as the team continues to grow and development advances behind the scenes.

How Cyberpunk 2 and the New IP Fit Around Polaris

While The Witcher 4 commands the largest team, the rest of CD Projekt Red's roadmap still matters. The studio has opened a new North American office in Boston to serve as the primary hub for Cyberpunk 2, enabling parallel development between Poland and the U.S.²

Meanwhile, the new IP codenamed Hadar is being incubated by a smaller group, with the company taking a long-term view of building a new universe from scratch. These projects will likely benefit indirectly from the work done on Polaris: tools, workflows, and design solutions built for The Witcher 4 can be adapted across teams, and experience with Unreal Engine 5 will carry forward.

What This All Means for RPG Fans

From the outside, it might feel as though The Witcher 4 is moving slowly. There are no story trailers, no extensive gameplay breakdowns, and no concrete release window. But when you look at hiring trends, engine decisions, and the lessons drawn from Cyberpunk 2077, a different picture emerges: CD Projekt Red is trying to rebuild trust and create a more sustainable foundation for its next decade of RPGs.

If the studio can successfully leverage Unreal Engine 5, maintain realistic timelines, and keep nearly 500 developers aligned on a single creative vision, Polaris could become the start of a long-lived Witcher era rather than just a follow-up to Wild Hunt. The trade-off is time and patience—but the studio appears committed to spending both.

Frequently Asked Questions About The Witcher 4

Is The Witcher 4 officially confirmed?

Yes. CD Projekt Red has publicly confirmed a new Witcher game, internally known as Polaris, which will start a new trilogy in the Witcher universe.

How many developers are working on The Witcher 4?

According to company updates summarized by major gaming outlets, nearly 500 developers are currently assigned to The Witcher 4, making it CD Projekt Red's largest project to date.¹

What engine does The Witcher 4 use?

The game is being developed on Unreal Engine 5 as part of a long-term partnership between CD Projekt Red and Epic Games.³

Will The Witcher 4 have multiplayer?

Official descriptions emphasize a single-player, story-driven RPG. CD Projekt Red has discussed adding online elements to some future projects, but no concrete multiplayer features have been confirmed for Polaris.

When will The Witcher 4 be released?

CD Projekt Red has stated that the game will not launch in 2026. Analysts and observers consider 2027 the earliest likely release window, though delays beyond that are possible.