Polish company CD Projekt promised in August that the open-world fantasy role-playing game Polaris (codenamed The Witcher 4) would enter active production by the end of 2024, and it kept its word.
Image source: Steam (dpuntsman)
As part of its financial report for the third quarter of calendar year 2024, CD Projekt confirmed that a few weeks ago the Polaris team finished the pre-production stage and moved on to full production of the game.
CD Projekt co-head Michał Nowakowski called the new phase of development of The Witcher 4 the most intense and noted that the company is “extremely pleased” with the progress of the project.
Polaris was unveiled in March 2022 (Image source: CD Projekt)
The head of development of The Witcher 4, Sebastian Kalemba, commented on the game’s transition to full production on his microblog and intrigued fans with a teaser of a mysterious coin.
«We have a lot of work ahead, but thanks to our talented and hardworking staff, I believe we can make the new Witcher saga great,” said Kalemba.
Kalemba urged to follow the news to find out what is on the other side of the coin (Image source: Skalemba in X)
Meanwhile, compared to CD Projekt’s August report, the Polaris team has shrunk from 410 to 400 people (see image below). In total, CD Projekt Red has 650 employees.
Polaris is positioned as the start of a new saga for the series. In October 2022, CD Projekt hinted that the game would not be released until 2025, but analysts are more pessimistic: they see the release in 2026 or even 2027.
Image source: CD Projekt