CD Projekt’s 2024 half-year monetary report is out, and there is not a complete lot to see for anybody who is not a serious shareholder within the firm. But there’s one factor that is of curiosity to non-investing gamer varieties: The Witcher 4 is nearly prepared to maneuver into full manufacturing.
“Work on Polaris is progressing,” CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski mentioned in a press launch. “Its growth staff is nearing a serious milestone which can mark the top of the preproduction part.
“The first half of the 12 months was additionally a busy interval for our Boston studio, which is laying the groundwork for Project Orion—a brand new recreation set within the Cyberpunk universe.”
“Polaris” is the codename for “a brand new saga within the Witcher franchise,” which CD Projekt insisted for a whole 12 months was not referred to as The Witcher 4—till then-CEO Adam Kiciński blabbed in March 2023 that, sure, Polaris is in actual fact The Witcher 4.
Of course, that is not essentially the official title for it, and CD Projekt has studiously averted utilizing that time period for it in subsequent communications. But it has acknowledged that Polaris is “the following recreation in The Witcher saga,” and since there have been three earlier video games within the sequence, the following one is the fourth. You simply cannot deny the logic.
The breakdown of who’s doing what at CD Projekt is just about unchanged from the earlier report—some small upticks within the Witcher spinoff (Sirius) and a brand new IP (Hadar), however nothing notably notable—however chief monetary officer Piotr Nielubowicz mentioned in an earnings recap video that quite a bit has occurred over the primary half of 2024.
“The Polaris staff, engaged on the following recreation in The Witcher saga, made substantial progress, which can quickly allow us to wrap up pre-production and take this mission to the complete manufacturing part.
“The previous six months have been additionally a busy time for our new studio in Boston. There, a gaggle of CD Projekt veterans, now assisted by freshly employed gifted builders, is laying the groundwork for an additional Cyberpunk recreation, codenamed Orion.”
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It’s value managing expectations right here. CD Projekt has beforehand mentioned The Witcher 4 is within the “most superior” state of growth among the many video games it at the moment has in progress, nevertheless it’s nonetheless not fairly in full manufacturing at this level—and even as soon as that kicks absolutely into gear, it’ll be an excellent whereas earlier than we even have something to play. And how lengthy is “an excellent whereas,” you marvel? Someone really requested that query in in the present day’s buyers name, and unsurprisingly CD Projekt declined to pin itself down.
“The reply to that query actually differs from recreation to recreation, basically, as a result of there are triple-A video games I’m fairly positive which can be made round three years after which there are video games which have been in manufacturing for a really very long time,” Nowakowski (I feel) mentioned. “Historically for us, we have been launching our video games—from the second we begin until the second we launch—in about 4 or five-ish [years] time period.”
As for whether or not Polaris would possibly take roughly time than regular (no matter “regular” is) to finish, he mentioned nothing actually involves thoughts: “It’s acquired each software doable at its disposal to only progress the common path.”
Three years from now places us into 2027, which is a great distance off, nevertheless it may very well be quite a bit worse: CD Projekt’s final recreation, Cyberpunk 2077, was introduced in 2012 and took eight years to come back out—and one other three years earlier than it was really good. Bottom line? Be glad it is occurring, and do not count on far more than temporary reminders in quarterly monetary studies for at the very least your subsequent two birthdays.
