The Witcher 4: Leaks and Release Date

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released in 2015 to much critical acclaim. So, millions of players all over the world are wondering if there will be a sequel. The good news is that CD Projekt RED has confirmed that The Witcher 4 is already in development. But the bad news is that there’s no release date or subsequent trailer following the teaser in 2022. 

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New Codenames

The upcoming entry in The Witcher trilogy may not be called The Witcher 4 because that’s too corny. It’s like calling the 2018 God of War, God of War 4. But as of now, The Witcher 4 has been codenamed Polaris. Other The Witcher games that have popped up are: 

• Canis Majoris: Canis Majoris will be a full-fledged remake of the first Witcher game. CD Projekt RED revealed that it was working on the game with Fool’s Theory, a Polish studio.
• Sirius: There’s no concrete news on Sirius except that The Molasses Flood, one of CD Projekt RED’s studios, will be working on the new game. Also, the game will differ from previous The Witcher games because it’ll focus on both the offline and online modes. Sure, it’ll come with a full-fledged campaign with a story, main missions, and side quests.

Only in Fan Fiction — The School of the Lynx

Information about the School of the Lynx is elusive, unlike the other Witcher Schools (the School of the Wolf or Griffin), which have even appeared in the games. The only information about the School of the Lynx is sourced from fan fiction from the authors Witcher190 and SMiki55. Of course, these are just fan fiction. So, The Witcher 4 may be entirely different from their ideas and imagination of what a Witcher from the School of the Lynx should act, move, and look like. 

But we can only work with the existing material because CD Projekt RED hasn’t exactly debunked any fan fiction material. According to fan fiction, Lambert is rumoured to be the new leader of the School of the Lynx.

What Happened to the School of the Cat?

The School of the Cat might be renowned for its fighting prowess, but on the side, they’re known to be a band of madmen, psychopaths, and sadists. 

A Little History

The School of the Cat is unique because it’s one of The Witcher Schools that accepts women and non-pureblood humans. Initially, the process of creating Cat Witchers went smoothly, with the school churning out emotionless Witchers who only did their job.

The new School of the Cat became a sensational hit among the people of Stygga Castle. They (the Cat Witchers) didn’t only eliminate monsters, but also bandits, so the castle was peaceful. Soon enough, the New School of Cat became a political piece whose sway amongst the locals could convince them to elect a particular leader.

But the school’s success was short-lived. The mages, unsatisfied with the Cat Witchers’ already-impressive performance, started experimenting again. 

• Experiment #1: The mages further dulled the emotions of another batch of potential Cat Witchers. 
• Experiment #2: The mages heightened the emotions of another batch of test subjects. 

This led to the downfall of the School of the Cat. Revenge-driven test subjects tactically ruined the School’s public image and assassinated the mages in charge of creating the Witchers. By far, Cat Witchers are known to be as flexible with their morals as they’re flexible with their armors.

A New Witcher School — The School of the Lynx

The School of the Cat’s history is shrouded in deceit and violence, so how will the School of the Lynx fare in a world that dislikes Witchers from a feline school? There are more than five Witcher schools in The Witcher books. Most of these schools have been unveiled in the original Witcher trilogy, and they include:

• The School of the Wolf.
• The School of the Cat.
• The School of the Bear.
• The School of the Manticore.
• The School of the Viper.
• The School of the Griffin.

In The Witcher 4: Polaris, the new school that has been unveiled is the School of the Lynx. The School of the Lynx is expected to be a reformed version of the School of the Cat in terms of teachings. That is, Witchers from the School of the Lynx will focus on speed, agility, and precision.

New In-Game Engine: Unreal Engine 5

Great news! CD Projekt RED announced that The Witcher 4 Polaris will be developed from scratch using Unreal Engine 5. CD Projekt RED previously used their proprietary REDengine, but Unreal Engine 5 is full of technological innovations that will change the future of gaming as we know it. So, we just have to wait for our faithful developers to catch up. 

According to CDPR’s CEO in a recent earnings call, Adam Kiciński said: “We are preparing things on the pipeline side and toolset sides”, he begins. “Some developers are still learning the technology, and at the same time, there are teams working together with Epic on those aspects that are needed for our open-world RPGs. For the first project, Polaris, it will, maybe not slow down, but it won’t accelerate the process“.

He continued: “But for the next projects, we assume that it should smoothen the production”, he continues. “That was one of the reasons behind saying the strategy that we want to release three big Witcher games within six years, starting from the release of Polaris, which is Witcher 4“.

The rest of the earnings call also confirmed that the new Witcher game is an AAA title and wouldn’t be called The Witcher 4. 

The Witcher 4 Release Date Speculation

In May, CD Projekt RED announced that they were done with the research phase of The Witcher 4 Polaris. So, the studio is dividing its focus on the pre-production stage of The Witcher 4 and the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty expansion. So, we’re looking at a possible 2025-28 release date.

This is because the studio just ported over to Unreal Engine 5. It’ll take the team time to learn the new game engine and start production with it. Also, the new technological innovations in the form of the PS5 and Xbox Series X mean that CD Projekt RED isn’t quite sure about the limits of the next-gen consoles yet. 

Supported Platforms

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was available on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. So, it’s safe to say that The Witcher 4 will be supported by all of these platforms. That means players will be able to play The Witcher 4 on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo consoles. 

Our Final Say

Even the folks over at Player.me can confirm that The Witcher trilogy is one heck of a game. Great graphics, sleek combat, a myriad of characters, and tons of main and side quests are available. So, we’re excited to see what CD Projekt RED has in store for players in the next instalment of The Witcher trilogy. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

When Was The Witcher 4 Confirmed?

CD Projekt RED announced a new The Witcher trilogy in October 2022. This was done via a series of tweets that also confirmed the development of a few other titles. The first game in the trilogy will be The Witcher 4, after which the two other games will be released over six years. So far, The Witcher 4’s codename is Polaris. 

Will Geralt Be in The Witcher 4?

If you’ve read The Witcher books before, you’ll know that Geralt eventually dies shortly after marrying Yennefer. But Geralt has died multiple times in the book already, only to be revived so there’s no guarantee that he’ll be staying dead and out of sight throughout The Witcher 4. In the sequel to The Witcher 3, there’s a possibility that Ciri will be the new protagonist. Otherwise, it’ll be another character from the School of the Lynx. 

Who Is the New Geralt?

The new protagonist in the film series which is being produced by Netflix will be Liam Hemsworth. As for the video game, the new Geralt in The Witcher 4 may be Ciri or an unannounced character. Hopefully, CD Projekt RED will soon release a trailer unveiling the new protagonist in The Witcher 4.