CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński has said the company is already working on a single-player game to follow Cyberpunk 2077, which will be released this September.
It will be The Witcher 4, he clarified, but it may be a Witcher game.
“We’ve been working on a next single-player game already, creating a clear concept that waits for further development,” Kiciński told financial types at a Polish conference, translation kindly provided by Daniel Kłosiński.
“It’s already working but we don’t want to commit to it yet. We’ll start working on this next game right after Cyberpunk 2077.
“I already said there will be no Witcher 4,” he added. “I clearly said that Witcher was a trilogy. Simultaneously, we’ve always emphasised that we want to create Witcher games and the agreement with Mr. Sapkowski confirmed our rights.”
The agreement he referred to was the deal CD Projekt signed with Witcher creator Andrzej Sapkowski in December, heralding a new era of cooperation between the game maker and book writer. “One could venture to say the situation changed by 180 degrees and we cemented relations with Mr. Sapkowski,” said Kiciński at the financial event – “not only on paper: we’re cooperating.”
Let’s Play The Witcher 2 – Late to the Party Watch on YouTube
Remember, Sapkowski famously bungled his original deal with CD Projekt, taking a lump sum for the game rights instead of a percentage of the royalties – a decision he sorely regretted when The Witcher game series exploded following the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
But he got another shot at making his millions when Netflix bought the rights for The Witcher TV show, which has done very well. Geralt and pals are hotter property than ever.
“We have two worlds and we want to create games in those two worlds,” added Kiciński. “That’s why all planned games are either Witcher or Cyberpunk.”
Assuming CD Projekt Red’s next big game is a Witcher game, and it’s not The Witcher 4, then what could it be – a prequel? A game set before the events of The Witcher trilogy, perhaps long before? Is there a time when there were many Witchers, similar to how there were once many Jedi in Star Wars?