A new press release from CD Projekt Red highlighted the studio’s future plans for its properties, and it’s an encouraging outlook for fans of The Witcher, which is identified as one of two main franchises for the company that will continue to be explored. While a few spin-offs have emerged over the past few years - most notably Gwent, a stand-alone card game, and Thronebreaker, a game that uses Gwent mechanics to tell a larger narrative - it’s been a long time since fans were treated to a Witcher game proper.
Geralt’s last adventure was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the last in a trilogy that explored the monster hunter’s journeys across the land and neatly wrapped up his story in the expansion, Blood & Wine. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released in 2015, however, and with Cyberpunk 2077 the main priority of CD Projekt Red heading into 2020, it will almost certainly be at least five years since fans were last treated to an RPG adventure in the world of The Witcher.
The wait might not be that much longer, however. According to CD Projekt Red’s insight press release for the first half of 2019, the studio has big future plans that will establish the developer as a “dual franchise” company that focuses mostly on The Witcher and Cyberpunk. That’s encouraging for two reasons - one, CD Projekt Red basically confirmed the studio’s commitment to supporting Cyberpunk 2077 post-launch in some fashion, having already established itself as one of its major properties; and two, The Witcher remains a crucial part of the developer’s portfolio that will almost assuredly make for another AAA release down the line. Here’s the exact quote from the release:
The release further states that the company is migrating “towards a dual-franchise model,” which cleanly identifies how valuable both properties are to CD Projekt Red. With a statement as clear as that, it seems obvious that The Witcher will be getting more major titles in the future, possibly as soon as Cyberpunk 2077’s launch and post-release content are out in the wild. If nothing else, however, the press release serves as reassurance to fans of The Witcher that CD Projekt Red isn’t moving on from the series, but is instead focusing on the second of what it identifies as its two most important properties before an eventual return.
“The Company believes that maintaining the observed growth dynamics and expansion of its activity profile will depend on further enhancement of its world-class videogame[sic] development skillset and on maintaining effective communication channels with the global gaming community. Managing two separate major franchises (The Witcher and Cyberpunk), along with several independent development teams, enables the Company to conduct parallel work on several projects and smoothens its long-term release schedule.”
With Cyberpunk 2077’s release coming up quickly, it’s unlikely fans will be treated to any major Witcher announcements before then. Given this press release, however, it appears consumers may have more Witcher news coming in 2020 or shortly after.
Next: The Witcher: 5 Book Storylines The Show Could Adapt (& 5 Game Storylines We Hope To See)
Source: CD Projekt Red
