Witcher 4 development accelerates, CEO comments on use of AI

Fans have known since March 2022 that a new The Witcher game will be released, thanks to a post on X (formerly Twitter). Now, Adam Badowski, CEO of Polish game developer CD Projekt, has announced in an interview with Reuters that development on the long-awaited sequel will finally begin this year.

According to the interview, CD Projekt intends to increase the number of developers to around 400 by the middle of the year. So far, 260 developers have been involved in the pre-production phase. However, analysts do not expect the game to be released before 2026.

AI should not replace humans

When asked about the use of AI in an interview with Reuters, CD Project CEO Adam Badowski was clear: "We think that AI is something that can help improve certain processes in game production, but not replace people."

However, according to the CEO, CD Projekt has formed a team of developers to look at how artificial intelligence can be used in game development. It remains to be seen what role AI will play in CD Projekt's future games.

This is what we already know about The Witcher 4

The Witcher 4 will be the start of a new trilogy, which is currently being developed under the project name "Polaris". It is already known that the game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. This means that we can expect a significant visual improvement over The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which was developed using REDengine 3.

Those hoping to see Geralt's adopted daughter Ciri as the main protagonist in the new Witcher game will probably be disappointed, according to the developers. No further information about the characters or the storyline is known yet.