The Witcher 4 is 'nearing a major landmark' and will soon begin full production

CD Projekt's half-year financial report for 2024 is out. There's not much to see if you're not a major shareholder. There is one thing of interest to those who aren't interested in investing: The Witcher 4 will soon be moving into full production.

In a press statement, CD Projekt's joint CEO Michal nowakowski stated that "Work on Polaris" is progressing. The development team is close to a major milestone that will mark the end preproduction phase.

"The first half was also a busy time for our Boston studio which is laying down the foundations for Project Orion, a new game set within the Cyberpunk Universe."

"Polaris" was the codename of "a new saga within the Witcher franchise." CD Projekt had insisted that it wasn't The Witcher 4 for an entire calendar year, until then-CEO Adam Kicinski announced in March 2023, that yes, Polaris IS The Witcher 4.

CD Projekt has avoided using this term in its subsequent communications. It has acknowledged that Polaris "is the next game in The Witcher Saga," and because there have been three previous titles in the series, it is the fourth. You can't ignore the logic.

The CD Projekt breakdown of who is doing what is almost unchanged from the previous report. There are some small increases in the Witcher spinoff, Sirius, and a new IP called Hadar but nothing that stands out. However, in an earnings summary video by Piotr Nilubowicz he said that a lot of things have happened in the first half 2024.

The Polaris team has made significant progress on the next game of The Witcher Saga. This will allow us to complete pre-production soon and move this project into the full production phase.

"The last six months have also been a busy period for our new Boston studio. A group of CD Projekt veterans is working with newly hired talented developers to lay the foundations for another Cyberpunk title, codenamed Orion.

It's important to manage expectations. CD Projekt has said that The Witcher 4 was in the "most advance" state of development compared to the other games in progress. However, it is still not in full production. You may be wondering how long "a good while" is. In today's investor call, someone asked this question and CD Projekt refused to answer.

"The answer to this question really varies from game to game in general because there are triple A games I'm pretty certain that are made in around three years, and then there are other games that have been produced for a long time," Nowakowski said (I think). "Historically, we have launched our games in a period of four to five years.

Polaris is a complex system that has a lot of tools at its disposal.

In three years, we will be in 2027. That's a long time away, but it could have been worse: CD Projekt announced Cyberpunk 2077 in 2012, and it took 8 years before it was released, and another 3 years until it was good. Bottom line? You should be happy that it's happening and not expect more than a brief reminder in your quarterly financial reports at least for the next two birthdays.