Things are looking pretty good for fans ofThe Witcherright now. A remake of the firstWitchergame was announced late in 2022, which should help a lot of people ease into the franchise. Even thoughThe Witcher 3: Wild Huntwas designed to be accessible to series newcomers, it’s still nice to see where the game adaptation’s celebrated story began. Meanwhile,The Witcher 3: Complete Editionalso came out recently, and fans are enjoying their latest playthrough of the best version of it yet.
There are more good times on the horizon, asThe Witcher 4has been more or less confirmed to be in development under the working titleProject Polaris. Indeed, now that things have turned around forCyberpunk 2077, it’s a good time to be a fan of CD Projekt Red games in general. However, even with so many good titles out and more likely to come, there’s been a shift regarding the perception of the prolific Polish developer. Chances are good that the lead-up to CD Projekt Red’s next major release, which will probably beThe Witcher 4, won’t feel like it did for its other games.
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Cyberpunk 2077 Left CD Projekt Red Fans Cautious
Obviously,Cyberpunk 2077is the main culprit behind this. The game’s launch has gone down in infamy, to the point where it’s a wonder that it’s been able to pull aNo Man’s Sky-esque recovery.Cyberpunk 2077was a technical disaster at launch, and the previous generation console versions were especially problematic.Cyberpunk 2077may be the most broken game CD Projekt Red has released, but not by as wide a margin as many would think.The Witcher 1and2were and still are very rough action RPGs without mods, and evenThe Witcher 3shipped in a subpar state.
For players used to big games launching unpolished nowadays, one must remember that the hype forCyberpunk 2077was astronomical. The game was announced very early into development but was able to benefit from it only whenThe Witcher 3began snowballing in popularity. Its hype only grew over time, and actually managed to penetrate mainstream gaming discussions.
The Witcher 4 Is Going To Be Huge Regardless
All of that will contribute some reasonable caution to the pre-release hype forThe Witcher 4. However, there are still good reasons to be excited about projects coming from Poland’s biggest AAA development studio, andThe Witcherwill benefit from a few extra ones. Aside from the narrative and scope pedigrees associated with CD Projekt Red,The Witcher’s name has taken on fame that wasn’t present whenThe Witcher 3first came out. It’s telling that the recentComplete Editionlaunched with newcontent based on the ongoingWitcherTV show. No longer just a book series getting RPG adaptations,The Witcherhas become a cultural phenomenon.
WhenThe Witcher 4is properly announced, everyone is going to hear about it. Even with higher awareness of CD Projekt Red’sdevelopment troubles andCyberpunk 2077’s launch,Witcherfans from different media industries around the world will still celebrate that it’s on its way. Caution will temper the hype this time around, but there’s no doubt that hype levels are still going to be very high. With any luck,The Witcher 4will be designed with hindsight in mind to avoid the problems CDPR titles have faced in the past.
A newWitchergame is in development.
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