The Witcher The Witcher IV - The Ciri Saga Begins

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/t...etime-in-2027-at-the-soonest-cd-projekt-says/

The Witcher 4 won't be out until sometime in 2027 at the soonest, CD Projekt says​

We don't know when it will release, but at least now we know when it won't.

The Witcher 4 doesn't have a release date yet, although it's a safe assumption that it remains a long way off. The real optimists out there might be hoping that it'll be out sometime before the end of 2026—that's nearly two years away, after all—but I'm sorry to say that CD Projekt threw a bucket of cold water on that thought during today's fiscal year 2024 earnings presentation, saying definitively that it ain't gonna happen.

The first mention of the 'not in 2026' timeline came during a look at the "consolidated net profit goals of the motivational program to align top managers goals with the CD Projekt group objectives." While normally the sort of corpo-financial nonsense I'd pay good money to avoid having to listen to, in this case there was a comment that caught my attention: "Even though we do not plan to release The Witcher 4 by the end of 2026, we are still driven by this financial goal."

The goal in question is related to CD Projekt's share-based incentive programs, and I'm not the only one whose ears pricked up at the news that 2026 is out of the question, but 2027 is a possibility: It came up in the first question in the subsequent Q&A portion of the call, but CD Projekt declined to confirm a specific post-2026 release year..

"We are not going to announce the precise launch date for the game yet," CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz said in response to the inquiry. "All we could share now to give more visibility to investors is that the game will not be launched within the time frame of the first target for the incentive program, which ends December 31, 2026."

Ah well. The 2026 target was probably a little over-optimistic, but those high hopes weren't entirely without justification. CD Projekt said in November 2024 that The Witcher 4 had entered "full production," and while joint CEO Michał Nowakowski warned a few days later that the studio was going to be "smarter" and more careful about how it markets new games, it dropped a surprise cinematic reveal trailer just a few weeks later at The Game Awards.

Given that flurry of activity, and the fact that the possibility of a 2026 release has been mentioned around these parts once or twice in the past, and you can understand why some people might think, "Well, maybe." Well, no. Sorry.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

In before The Witcher IV and The Elder Scrolls VI release on the same day.

 

[Justicar]

In before The Witcher IV and The Elder Scrolls VI release on the same day.

Todd is gonna get mogged again: Fallout 4 released a year after Witcher 3, Starfield released 3 years after Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[BruceVC]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/t...etime-in-2027-at-the-soonest-cd-projekt-says/

The Witcher 4 won't be out until sometime in 2027 at the soonest, CD Projekt says​

We don't know when it will release, but at least now we know when it won't.

The Witcher 4 doesn't have a release date yet, although it's a safe assumption that it remains a long way off. The real optimists out there might be hoping that it'll be out sometime before the end of 2026—that's nearly two years away, after all—but I'm sorry to say that CD Projekt threw a bucket of cold water on that thought during today's fiscal year 2024 earnings presentation, saying definitively that it ain't gonna happen.

The first mention of the 'not in 2026' timeline came during a look at the "consolidated net profit goals of the motivational program to align top managers goals with the CD Projekt group objectives." While normally the sort of corpo-financial nonsense I'd pay good money to avoid having to listen to, in this case there was a comment that caught my attention: "Even though we do not plan to release The Witcher 4 by the end of 2026, we are still driven by this financial goal."

The goal in question is related to CD Projekt's share-based incentive programs, and I'm not the only one whose ears pricked up at the news that 2026 is out of the question, but 2027 is a possibility: It came up in the first question in the subsequent Q&A portion of the call, but CD Projekt declined to confirm a specific post-2026 release year..

"We are not going to announce the precise launch date for the game yet," CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz said in response to the inquiry. "All we could share now to give more visibility to investors is that the game will not be launched within the time frame of the first target for the incentive program, which ends December 31, 2026."

Ah well. The 2026 target was probably a little over-optimistic, but those high hopes weren't entirely without justification. CD Projekt said in November 2024 that The Witcher 4 had entered "full production," and while joint CEO Michał Nowakowski warned a few days later that the studio was going to be "smarter" and more careful about how it markets new games, it dropped a surprise cinematic reveal trailer just a few weeks later at The Game Awards.

Given that flurry of activity, and the fact that the possibility of a 2026 release has been mentioned around these parts once or twice in the past, and you can understand why some people might think, "Well, maybe." Well, no. Sorry.

Damn that seems like a long time to wait

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

In before The Witcher IV and The Elder Scrolls VI release on the same day.

Todd is gonna get mogged again: Fallout 4 released a year after Witcher 3, Starfield released 3 years after Cyberpunk 2077.

Fallout 4 released the same year as The Witcher III (to be precise, six months later in 2015), and CDPR dawdled for years after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 when it should have immediately started on a fourth Witcher game. This would give Bethesda Sofrworks an opportunity to release The Elder Scrolls VI in 2027, which CDPR now considers the earliest year in which The Witcher IV could release, except that Bethesda Softworks is no longer capable of completing such a game in four years --- but CDPR might well take even longer than 2027 to complete its game, so we might again see both CDPR and Bethesda releasing their games in the same calendar year, as occurred in 2011 with The Witcher II being overshadowed by The Elder Scrolls V and then in 2015 with Fallout 4 being overshadowed by The Witcher III.

 

[Taxnomore]

The good news is that at this rate, we'll all be in retirement to play The Witcher 5 and Elder Scrolls 7.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Fallout 4 released the same year as The Witcher III (to be precise, six months later in 2015), and CDPR dawdled for years after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 when it should have immediately started on a fourth Witcher game.

CDPR weren't dawdling, they had to fix CP2077 which was in unacceptable state - in order to save the future of the franchise. Once they managed to achieve that in 2023 and regain a lot of players' trust with Phantom Liberty, only then they could focus on Witcher 4.

This would give Bethesda Sofrworks an opportunity to release The Elder Scrolls VI in 2027, which CDPR now considers the earliest year in which The Witcher IV could release, except that Bethesda Softworks is no longer capable of completing such a game in four years --- but CDPR might well take even longer than 2027 to complete its game, so we might again see both CDPR and Bethesda releasing their games in the same calendar year, as occurred in 2011 with The Witcher II being overshadowed by The Elder Scrolls V and then in 2015 with Fallout 4 being overshadowed by The Witcher III.

Why would CDPR care about Bethesda's release schedule, especially now, after Starfield destroyed a lot of fan good will for this company?

At this point Witcher is likely a more popular franchise than TES.

Even if they'd want to avoid releasing next to TES6, they can always do so, even when their game is complete - they can delay it half a year expaining they want to squash some bugs in order to deliver a higher quality product. After CP2077 debacle noone will rush them.

But it is likely it won't even come to that and Bethesda won't be ready with TES6 for 2027.

 

[BruceVC]

I just finished replays of the 3 Witcher games in anticipation of W4 and as a reminder of the entire series

There is a thread dedicated to this worthwhile gaming experience for those fans of the Witcher games

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-witcher-series-appreciation-thread.152289/

But I wanted to make this post specific to W4

Firstly in my W3 ending Ciri survived and ended up as a Witcher as a career choice. So this aligns to the narrative in W4 where she is a Witcher

But I still consider the Witcher series a mans world game and playing the entire Wither series again has just reinforced that view around lore and the way the narrative unfolds on many levels

However as I mentioned in previous posts I will give W4 the benefit of doubt and Im still cautiously optimistic that W4 will be a entertaining successor to the franchise

I am going to be positive despite my legitimate concerns around the reality of a women as the main character

 

[Average Manatee]

At this point Witcher is likely a more popular franchise than TES.

Skyrim has twice the players on steam despite being older. Skyrim still prints money. The TES series is well regarded overall by the general public all the way back to Morrowind while W1/2 are still niche games. No way this is true, TES is an order of magnitude more popular.

 

[Lord_Potato]

At this point Witcher is likely a more popular franchise than TES.

Skyrim has twice the players on steam despite being older. Skyrim still prints money. The TES series is well regarded overall by the general public all the way back to Morrowind while W1/2 are still niche games. No way this is true, TES is an order of magnitude more popular.

I wrote 'likely'.

Skyrim sold 60 million copies since 2011. Witcher 3 sold 50 million copies since 2015.

I guess we shall see the decisive battle when Witcher 4 and TES6 are finally released.

 

[Harthwain]

Skyrim sold 60 million copies since 2011. Witcher 3 sold 50 million copies since 2015.

I guess we shall see the decisive battle when Witcher 4 and TES6 are finally released.

TES6 may be soured by Starfield though.

 

[thesecret1]

I guess we shall see the decisive battle when Witcher 4 and TES6 are finally released.

A battle of two shitpiles. The victory will be Pyrrhic in the extreme

 

[sosmoflux]

If both of those games release it will signal the end times. I can't see a future beyond them.

 

[Lord_Potato]

If both of those games release it will signal the end times. I can't see a future beyond them.

Witcher 5 and TES7.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I can't see a future beyond them.

Hmmm....

HMMMM????

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Gerrard]

REDEEM THE BETA INVITE SAAR

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

But I still consider the Witcher series a mans world game and playing the entire Wither series again has just reinforced that view around lore and the way the narrative unfolds on many levels

However as I mentioned in previous posts I will give W4 the benefit of doubt and Im still cautiously optimistic that W4 will be a entertaining successor to the franchise

I am going to be positive despite my legitimate concerns around the reality of a women as the main character

Pure woke retardation... (picking a female protagonist for W4).

Men like swords and the idea of swordfighting, and fighting monsters. Women couldn't care less in most cases. So who is Ciri a protagonist for?

In non-immersive games (e.g. MMOs, MOBAs, etc), men sometimes like playing as female characters, just for looks or whatever, but in a game like Witcher, where it's all about the atmosphere and immersion to a large degree, the majority of playerbase (male) is expected to go from a cool male character who fits the gameplay perfectly to a startlingly unfit protagonist like Ciri. Forget the lore reasons why it's stupid, but just imagine the kind of medievalesque world Sapkowski created, and all those illiterate bigoted peasants and burghers hiring a woman to slay monsters for them, the uncanny valley stuff will write itself. Is every quest going to devolve into obnoxious feminist discussions or will the backward masses just act like 21st century socialites?

 

[thesecret1]

So who is Ciri a protagonist for?

Troons.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/yennefer-voice-artist-doesnt-yet-know-if-shes-back-for-the-witcher-4

Yennefer voice artist doesn't yet know if she's back for The Witcher 4​

Geralt your theories.

The voice artist behind The Witcher 3's Yennefer of Vengerberg has told Eurogamer that she doesn't know yet if her character will return in CD Projekt's in-development The Witcher 4.

Work on The Witcher 4 ramped up in earnest last November, following several years of pre-production. Now, over 400 staff at CD Projekt are assigned to the game - though it won't launch until at least 2027.

Still, we already know the basics - that The Witcher 4 is a continuation of CD Projekt's existing trilogy, that Ciri will now be its protagonist, and that hero Geralt has already been locked in as reappearing in some form, still voiced by Doug Cockle.

But what about Yen? After Geralt and Ciri, sorceress Yennefer is arguably the next most important. Her relationship with Geralt is featured in numerous Witcher stories, and the character is also a prominent part of Netflix's The Witcher TV series.

"I don't know any of this," claimed The Witcher 3's Yennefer, Denise Gough, when asked by my colleague Mat Jones what she knew of CD Projekt's progress on The Witcher 4.

Gough - now starring in the Star Wars series Andor as Dedra Meero - went on to suggest she hadn't known what to expect when recording for The Witcher 3 years ago.

"I didn't know what I was doing," Gough continued. "I'd never done a video game before. And then lots of, usually men, would come up to me in sound departments on film sets, would come up and go [whispers] 'are you Yennefer?' And I was like 'who's Yennefer?'"

Eurogamer recently sat down with The Witcher 4's game director Sebastian Kalemba and narrative director Philipp Weber to try and tease some information about when the game will be set, and how much Geralt might appear.

"Currently, he's having the best time of his life," Kalemba joked, when we asked whether Geralt would be back in action and playable at any point. "[He's] playing with some wine, and dealing with vineyards. This is where we left him last time. But obviously we can promise that Geralt will appear, but we cannot tell you if it's going to be playable or not right now. But yeah, he will appear. He's going to be present in The Witcher 4."

As for Netflix's TV adaptation, we just got our first proper look at Liam Hemsworth in the role of Geralt on set while filming its fifth season.

 

[Mauman]

Jesus, they're actually going on with the Netflix series? You'd think after something bombed like that they'd figure things out.

 

[Frozen]

Will we ever have it this good?

 

[markec]

 

[Elttharion]

The books went to shit once they started focusing on Ciri tho

 

[Barbarian]

I only played the games and there was frequent reference to all the cucking that went on in the books. Even in W3 you would open the in-game journal with the character descriptions and it would go something like "Yennefer cucked Geralt with this guy several times and then Geralt fought him". She even fucked the king of Skellen if I'm not mistaken. And then the whole backstory with the djinn which is the most beta cuck shit in fiction history.

It is a contradiction of sorts that a protagonist can be a womanizer and a willing cuck at the same time. Not sure if this is something the game did against the books - the reason why they only brought Yennefer in on the 3rd game maybe.

Ciri will be a whore fucking dudes and wymmin left and right. In fact she kind of already was. Imagine playing such a protagonist. I prefered the white haired cuck.