The Witcher “Polaris” Dev Team To Expand to 400 Members and starting production in 2024. CDPR Is Not Interested in Getting Acquired

[Gamernyc78]

The Witcher "Polaris" Dev Team To Expand to 400 Members in 2024; CDPR Is Not Interested in Getting Acquired

The development of next entry in The Witcher series codenamed Polaris will go into full swing next year while work on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel will begin

wccftech.com

The next entry in The Witcher series, currently known as "Polaris", is going to see a development ramp-up in 2024 with the expansion of the development team, according to the current CD Projekt Red CEO.

Speaking with Polish publication Parkiet, Adam Kiciński, who will move onto another role at the company from January 1st, commented on what the studio is working on, starting with the next entry in the series based on the works by Andrzej Sapkowski. As of now, over 330 people are working on Polaris, and the team will be expanded to about 400 people in mid-2024. Next year, CD Projekt Red will also start working on Orion, the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, whose conceptual stage ended a while back. As of now, the development team is still being built, whose core will be the new studio in Boston. Work is also continuing on Sirius in collaboration with The Molasses Flood and the remake of the first entry in The Witcher series.

Speaking about The Witcher "Polaris," Adam Kiciński highlighted how rumors saying that work is at an advanced stage and that a release date will be announced soon are not true. Following the multiple delays of Cyberpunk 2077, the Polish studio will start announcing release dates later than before, but they will still talk about upcoming titles early enough to allow for the proper marketing campaign.

Alongside talking about The Witcher "Polaris," Adam Kiciński also commented on potential acquisitions by the studio, saying that they are not interested in purchasing other companies only to consolidate their financial results. At the same time, CD Projekt Red is not interested in being acquired either by a larger entity, as they have worked their entire lives to get to the position they are currently in, a position that will only improve in a few years.

 

[Entropi]

He was just saying to those big entities to come prepared with a stratospheric number or don’t bother. Everyone has a price.

 

[Johnic]

Waiting for user reviews for this one.

The morons still didn't fix CP. Their shitty patch created a stick drift issue that requires you to "default" your control options each time you start the game.

 

[Maverick]

Phantom Liberty made them top WRPG dev again for me. It's even better than The Witcher 3. I am glad they are remaining independent.

 

[Airbus]

Witcher 4 coming in 2028 or 2029

 

[Infinity]

Waiting for user reviews for this one.

The morons still didn't fix CP. Their shitty patch created a stick drift issue that requires you to "default" your control options each time you start the game.

Nah CD Project Red Is one the best devs studios in the world. Cyber Punk and Witcher 3 are landmark titles.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Nah CD Project Red Is one the best devs studios in the world. Cyber Punk and Witcher 3 are landmark titles.

Because of Witcher 3 I don't Auto buy their games. I really didn't enjoy it for many reasons but the consensus is they are premium devs. Cyber Punk on console was a dumpster fire upon release and gave them tons of bad publicity so mentioning tht doesn't say much. They almost fucked up the whole company behind tht and Def lost mindshare.

 

[Danja]

Good I hope they stay independent

 

[KiryuRealty]

Because of Witcher 3 I don't Auto buy their games. I really didn't enjoy it for many reasons but the consensus is they are premium devs. Cyber Punk on console was a dumpster fire upon release and gave them tons of bad publicity so mentioning tht doesn't say much. They almost fucked up the whole company behind tht and Def lost mindshare.

CDPR is highly overrated. The Witcher is great because of the world and characters, which they did not create. Cyberpunk is cool because of the world Mike Pondsmith curated, inspired heavily by the writing of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, among others.

Their games are barely competent, but have great visuals if things work, which often seems beyond their abilities.

Anyone thinking they'd be a good pickup for Sony needs to think harder.

They're also habitual liars.

 

[Infinity]

CDPR is highly overrated. The Witcher is great because of the world and characters, which they did not create. Cyberpunk is cool because of the world Mike Pondsmith curated, inspired heavily by the writing of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, among others.

Their games are barely competent, but have great visuals if things work, which often seems beyond their abilities.

Anyone thinking they'd be a good pickup for Sony needs to think harder.

They're also habitual liars.

Witcher 3 is great because of the gameplay and the writing. A true rpg. Just because you licence a great ip doesn't mean you will make a great video game. Same thing with Cyberpunk. You're downplaying their success. Cyberpunk was always good just buggy as shit for console users and some PC gamers. But now after all the patches and updates most considered Cyberpunk a great game. CD project Red is one of the best studios in the world

 

[KiryuRealty]

Nah CD Project Red Is one the best devs studios in the world. Cyber Punk and Witcher 3 are landmark titles.

Well-supported argument there, bro!

 

[Infinity]

Well-supported argument there, bro!

"Witcher 3 is only good because of the books!" Lmao. Tighten up.

 

[KiryuRealty]

"Witcher 3 is only good because of the books!" Lmao. Tighten up.

If what makes a great RPG is the world, writing and characters, 90% of which in theWitcher games comes from Andreas Sapjkowski's books, and the game was a technical mess with lousy actual gameplay, that tells us Sapjkowski is a great writer, and CDPR are barely competent.

As for Cyberpunk, Pondsmith's original pen and paper game was lifting from the giants of cyberpunk, by Pondsmith's own admission, and the game was, once again, a broken piece of shit with pedestrian gameplay that took three years of work to make it into what had been promised YEARS before release.

It's fine if you want to give your Special Olympic gold medal for debate to CDPR for their mediocre games, but be real, and "tighten up" your less-than-incisvie thought process.

Building barely-functioning games in worlds made by others, using characters and plots made by said others, just means CDPR can ALMOST do the bare minimum for an RPG studio. Fucking congrats on the participation trophy-level work, I guess.

 

[Nomen_Nescio]

Witcher 3 is great because of the gameplay and the writing. A true rpg. Just because you licence a great ip doesn't mean you will make a great video game. Same thing with Cyberpunk. You're downplaying their success. Cyberpunk was always good just buggy as shit for console users and some PC gamers. But now after all the patches and updates most considered Cyberpunk a great game. CD project Red is one of the best studios in the world

Cyberpunks main and side quests are bugged and brick your save files, happened to me half a year ago. Fuck them.

 

[Infinity]

If what makes a great RPG is the world, writing and characters, 90% of which in theWitcher games comes from Andreas Sapjkowski's books, and the game was a technical mess with lousy actual gameplay, that tells us Sapjkowski is a great writer, and CDPR are barely competent.

As for Cyberpunk, Pondsmith's original pen and paper game was lifting from the giants of cyberpunk, by Pondsmith's own admission, and the game was, once again, a broken piece of shit with pedestrian gameplay that took three years of work to make it into what had been promised YEARS before release.

It's fine if you want to give your Special Olympic gold medal for debate to CDPR for their mediocre games, but be real, and "tighten up" your less-than-incisvie thought process.

Building barely-functioning games in worlds made by others, using characters and plots made by said others, just means CDPR can ALMOST do the bare minimum for an RPG studio. Fucking congrats on the participation trophy-level work, I guess.

It doesn't matter. Their are games that are based on great books and they fall short. The stories in witcher 3 are 5 years after the book. Meaning they created all of the storylines and plot elements. They made the characters act the way they should and improved on it. just because you make a game from a great book series doesnt mean the game will be great. The vast majority of players hail the Witcher 3 as one of the best rpgs ever. Your opinion is the minority.

it was broken for some players not all. Cyberpunk was always good. Cyberpunk is now considered a great game. CD Projekt Red is one of the best dev studio in the world.

 

[Gamernyc78]

It doesn't matter. Their are games that are based on great books and they fall short. The stories in witcher 3 are 5 years after the book. Meaning they created all of the storylines and plot elements. They made the characters act the way they should and improved on it. just because you make a game from a great book series doesnt mean the game will be great. The vast majority of players hail the Witcher 3 as one of the best rpgs ever. Your opinion is the minority.

it was broken for some players not all. Cyberpunk was always good. Cyberpunk is now considered a great game. CD Projekt Red is one of the best dev studio in the world.

Meh they ight but I hear you.

 

[Gamernyc78]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/cd-projekt-aims-start-production-phase-polaris-2024-2024-01-22/

CD Projekt aims to start production phase of 'Polaris' in 2024​

WARSAW, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Polish video game maker CD Projekt (CDR.WA), opens new tab aims to start the production phase of the next game in its blockbuster "Witcher" series this year, the company's new joint CEO Adam Badowski told Reuters.

"We'd like to have around 400 people working on the project by the middle of the year", Badowski said.
Badowski, a company veteran, took the helm at CD Projekt along with Michal Nowakowski at the start of the year.

The project, called "Polaris", is a new trilogy expanding the universe of the "Witcher" medieval fantasy franchise, which has sold over 75 million copies since the first game was released in 2007.

CD Projekt did not give a premiere date for the first game in the project, but analysts expect it to debut in 2026 or 2027.

That leaves the company without major game release in the next couple of years.

After a bug-ridden launch of another game "Cyberpunk 2077" in late 2020, CD Projekt has been focused on transforming its studio. It has announced plans for several new games and said in October that Cyberpunk's sales had exceeded 25 million copies.

A sequel to Cyberpunk, code-named "Orion", is in the conceptual phase, Badowski said. CD Projekt expects to have about 80 people working on the project by the end of the year.
Nowakowski added the company was considering including multi-player elements, but would not discuss details.
He said wage pressures had eased and the company expected hiring in its Polish studios to be "rather low", but it would continue expanding its North America studio.

He added CD Projekt had formed a team to look into how it could use AI.
"We think that AI is something that can help improve certain processes in game production, but not replace people," he said.

Speaking about lessons learnt from Cyberpunk's release, Badowski said the company now had better control of the game production process.
"We believe that in the future we'll avoid a premiere like the one we faced with Cyberpunk 2077", Badowski said.