The Witcher 4 is now in pre-production

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The wheels appear to be turning smoothly on The Witcher 4, the next big game in development at CD Projekt. Just a couple of months after the studio confirmed that it is in fact working on a new Witcher game, CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz said development is now in the "pre-production" phase.

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"We have recently wrapped up the research phase, which means the project has now progressed to pre-production, and we've begun to capitalize development expenses related to this new game," Nielubowicz said in a financial results highlight video.

"We are very eager to revisit the universe which has shaped our history to such an extent," CEO Adam Kiciński added in a separate statement.

Separating the "research" and "pre-production" phases of The Witcher 4 development might seem like splitting hairs, but I'm willing to be generous about it in this case because by all appearances the game will not merely continue the adventures of Geralt. CD Projekt has said it will be an entirely "new saga," possibly featuring a brand new school of school of witchers that doesn't appear in Andrzej Sapkowski's novels. Fitting all-original characters and content into the existing Witcher world puts a lot more weight on the shoulders of developers.

Full-on development of The Witcher 4 is still a long way off: The number of people on the project is growing but the bulk of CD Projekt's development team is focused on the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion. That remains expected to roll out sometime in 2023.

CD Projekt team compositions — (Image credit: CD Projekt)

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.