Good, bring on a new Witcher. After awhile, fictional characters need a rest. How many times can Batman/The Xmen/The Witcher save the town/city/country/world/universe?

Call the game A_Witcher_01 to really annoy people. (Don't actually do this, somebody will have a stroke)

Also from a design standpoint, would Geralt start at like level 140 in Witcher 4? They ran into that problem in the Mass Effect series.

What made Witcher 3 a stand out wasn't the voice acting. It was the excellent writing, story, character development and side quests that didn't feel like just a bunch of fetch quests. All of those are transferable to a different set of characters. The world of Witcher itself is about as generic as you can get. It's literally (and intentionally) a conglomeration of a bunch of other pre-existing fantasy worlds and myths.

_Cory wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 09:10:
Geralt's character + voice actor is 90% of the reason The Witcher 3 was so good. It will be hard to match.

Vesemir, Letho, Eskel, Lambert, Gaetan.. There's a bunch of other witchers that would make great stories. They even had great personalities in the games.

Simon Says wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 11:30:

Cutter wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 00:30:

Simon Says wrote on Nov 26, 2024, 22:31:

If this isn't about Geralt, then it isn't "Witcher 4".

If it's about a witcher it is. I'd love to see a game, or several, based on the hay day of the witchers.

The game isn't called "A Witcher", it's called "THE Witcher".

And there's only one "THE" Witcher.

If it's about another Witcher they can change the title. Same if it's about Ciri.

Make no mistakes, this isn't THE Witcher 4, they're just trying to bank on brand name recognition.

#MarketingBS

Wait, so you'd be ok with this being "A Witcher" and not "The Witcher 4?"

Oooooooook.

Cutter wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 00:30:

Simon Says wrote on Nov 26, 2024, 22:31:

If this isn't about Geralt, then it isn't "Witcher 4".

If it's about a witcher it is. I'd love to see a game, or several, based on the hay day of the witchers.

The game isn't called "A Witcher", it's called "THE Witcher".

And there's only one "THE" Witcher.

If it's about another Witcher they can change the title. Same if it's about Ciri.

Make no mistakes, this isn't THE Witcher 4, they're just trying to bank on brand name recognition.

#MarketingBS

sauron wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 09:43:

Nailbender wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 01:15:
It won't be about Geralt, his story arc was completed with the trilogy's conclusion and they've declared it when the new game was declared, already a few years ago.
But as others said before, there are other witchers, and there's Ciri. This universe has tons of potential, which I believe CDPR will tap into.
Also, I don't think the CP2077 launch fiasco and huge delays will be the same now - they've gone full Unreal 5, instead of developing and maintaining a new engine all by themselves.

Geralt retired with Yen and her stuffed unicorn (in my playthrough). I expect a new Witcher as the protagonist, but also fully anticipate seeing Geralt (and Yen, and hopefully Roach) at some point in the story.

Spoiler: In my playthrough, he is currently a vineyard owner in Toussaint, managed by Basil Fawlty.

I really believe that there will be a Geralt cameo at SOME point in Witcher 4. You have to expect it unless it takes place during a totally different timeline where Geralt isn't in it. Granted they could do a flash back situation or something. I think it would be a disservice to the fans to completely leave Geralt out 100%. That or we'll see other familiar faces.

All I request is that this is 100% pure single player with zero online needed. Zero MMO tropes and just plays like Witcher 3, but with more modern mechanics. I hate when they try to do too much and it leaves room for a more mediocre experience. After W3 initial launch and CP2077, you would think they've learned something? Right?

_Cory wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 09:10:
Geralt's character + voice actor is 90% of the reason The Witcher 3 was so good. It will be hard to match.

It wasn't 90%, but it was a decent portion. For me, it was the side quests that were all unique and required you to do more than "go here, kill things". Your decisions during quests could cause drastically different outcomes, which is super rare, even in games that supposedly give you agency. As long as that part remains, I'll be pretty happy with whoever is the lead character. I'll be surprised if it ISN'T Ciri, but who knows? Maybe we get to make our own Witcher.

Nailbender wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 01:15:
It won't be about Geralt, his story arc was completed with the trilogy's conclusion and they've declared it when the new game was declared, already a few years ago.
But as others said before, there are other witchers, and there's Ciri. This universe has tons of potential, which I believe CDPR will tap into.
Also, I don't think the CP2077 launch fiasco and huge delays will be the same now - they've gone full Unreal 5, instead of developing and maintaining a new engine all by themselves.

Geralt retired with Yen and her stuffed unicorn (in my playthrough). I expect a new Witcher as the protagonist, but also fully anticipate seeing Geralt (and Yen, and hopefully Roach) at some point in the story.

Spoiler: In my playthrough, he is currently a vineyard owner in Toussaint, managed by Basil Fawlty.

_Cory wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 09:10:
Geralt's character + voice actor is 90% of the reason The Witcher 3 was so good. It will be hard to match.

I agree, but hard to match doesn't mean impossible to do so.
Geralt's story is closed. We really don't need more, and more would likely diminish the story we had. It's a wide world, one once full of Witchers, so I think there's a lot of other stories to tell.

Kind of like how Star Wars would probably be better to move beyond Luke and find new stories in the galaxy.

Geralt's character + voice actor is 90% of the reason The Witcher 3 was so good. It will be hard to match.

Nailbender wrote on Nov 27, 2024, 01:15:
It won't be about Geralt, his story arc was completed with the trilogy's conclusion and they've declared it when the new game was declared, already a few years ago.
But as others said before, there are other witchers, and there's Ciri. This universe has tons of potential, which I believe CDPR will tap into.
Also, I don't think the CP2077 launch fiasco and huge delays will be the same now - they've gone full Unreal 5, instead of developing and maintaining a new engine all by themselves.

No last-gen console port will help a lot.

No surprises here.

It won't be about Geralt, his story arc was completed with the trilogy's conclusion and they've declared it when the new game was declared, already a few years ago.
But as others said before, there are other witchers, and there's Ciri. This universe has tons of potential, which I believe CDPR will tap into.
Also, I don't think the CP2077 launch fiasco and huge delays will be the same now - they've gone full Unreal 5, instead of developing and maintaining a new engine all by themselves.

Simon Says wrote on Nov 26, 2024, 22:31:

If this isn't about Geralt, then it isn't "Witcher 4".

If it's about a witcher it is. I'd love to see a game, or several, based on the hay day of the witchers.

If this isn't about Geralt, then it isn't "Witcher 4".

Braden wrote on Nov 26, 2024, 20:46:
No status update on the remake of the first Witcher game?

Nope. Except this minor tidbit:

As part of the production of games, the most important capital expenditure on research and development projects incurred during
the reporting period related to the Polaris, Orion and Sirius projects and the anime project, which are in the development phase,
and the Canis Majoris and Hadar projects, which are at an earlier phase of production, i.e. the research phase.

... and this one...

Administrative expenses of the CD PROJEKT Group comprise mainly:

costs of work on the future games incurred at an initial stage (research phase) preceding the execution of the projects
(development phase) and the start of their capitalization as part of Expenditure on development projects forming part of Noncurrent assets, where there was a significant increase in expenditure compared to the comparative period due to an increased
intensity of work on new projects following the completion of the production of the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
expansion. The largest expenditure incurred in the period analysed relates to the following projects: Orion (recognized in this
cost category until August of the current year), Canis Majoris and Hadar

^ The Witcher remake is Canis Majoris. It seems to still be very early days if it is only in the "research phase".

No status update on the remake of the first Witcher game?

OK. So five years full production until they relase the fuggy as buck alpha version to the public. Two expansions in the next two years that will also be released in alpha state. Another year or so of polishing and bug fixing until we get a GOTY. Add another year for the usual delays of either the full game or its expansions.

Phew.

Yeah, I can't wait to buy the complete 'The Witcher 4' GOTY in maybe 2035/2036 on sale. The excitement is at 11 when a game is over a decade away!