The Witcher 4 Targets a 2028 Release Window

The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release, CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski confirmed today in a video message inviting fans to hear about the future of the franchise at gamescom. It’s the first time the studio has attached an actual window to the game since its cinematic trailer debuted at The Game Awards 2024, and Nowakowski was careful to frame 2028 as a target rather than a promise. More than 500 developers are now working on the game, which he called the studio’s “biggest, boldest, and most ambitious game to date.”

That headcount is up from the 447 developers CD Projekt Red reported last November, and until now, the studio had only committed to the game not launching before 2027. As I said when The Witcher 4’s Unreal Engine 5 tech demo debuted last year, chances were we still had a few years of waiting ahead of us. A 2028 target makes it official. Nowakowski seems to know it’s a long way off, too, telling fans to “let the team cook. It will be worth the wait.”

Don’t expect any of that cooking to be served at gamescom, though, since The Witcher 4 won’t be at the show. Instead, CD Projekt Red is bringing the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt expansion Songs of the Past, which we’ve known since May is launching in 2027 as the game’s first expansion since 2016’s Blood and Wine. The studio confirmed back in July that the expansion would make its debut during gamescom Opening Night Live, and today’s video promises new footage along with “a surprise or two” during the livestreams CD Projekt Red has planned throughout the week.

Songs of the Past is being co-developed with Fool’s Theory, a studio staffed with Witcher 3 veterans, and it puts Geralt of Rivia back in the lead before Ciri takes over as protagonist in The Witcher 4. gamescom Opening Night Live airs August 25 at 11:00 AM Pacific (2:00 PM Eastern), so the first real look at the expansion is only a day away.