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Sex, herbs and Geralt: CD Projekt RED hints at The Witcher 3

The Witcher 3 teaser image
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If your experience with role-playing games begins and ends with those created by Japanese developers and BioWare, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. One of the best roleplaying series of recent years was actually created in Poland by developer CD Projekt RED. The Witcher, and its sequel, The Witcher 2, are based on a series of stories written by Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski. Unlike American-made games or those created by the Japanese, The Witcher series prides itself on presenting a gritty, dark, mature version of traditional medieval fantasy that features bloody combat, copious nudity and a storyline that is equal parts political intrigue and hunting for biologically improbable monsters. As a result, we’ve been anxious to see a third Witcher title ever since the debut of The Witcher 2.

Luckily for us, CD Projekt RED doesn’t put much stock in silence and has instead opted to coyly tease fans with what appear to be screenshots taken from the development of The Witcher 3. The first appeared as part of a hidden message found in a promotional teaser clip for Cyberpunk 2077, the other big game that CD Projekt RED is currently working on. The second cropped us this morning as part of an update on the current status of a piece of software known as REDkit. REDkit is currently being beta tested and CD Projekt RED’s update seems designed purely to point this out, at least until you notice the image directly above it and the sly, winking description offered by the developer.

That image, which you can find above, is unmistakably of Geralt of Rivia’s iconic sword. Geralt is the titular “witcher” of CD Projekt RED’s series, and thus the simplest explanation for this picture is that it’s a not-so-subtle hint that the firm wants to reveal The Witcher 3. This is seemingly corroborated by the image found in the Cyberpunk 2077 teaser which suggests that CD Projekt RED will be making a big announcement on February 5.

Most damning of all though, is the company’s seemingly flippant attitude toward the importance of these images. Instead of outright stating what they are or what they might mean, CD Projekt RED contents itself by saying things like “… if you are wondering what’s that in that picture above — well, we’ll leave it for your imagination to answer.” If that doesn’t sound like the words of a developer giddy with anticipation for the imminent chance to reveal its next big project, then we don’t what does.

As we’re obviously excited by the potential these images represent, we’ll be sure to bring you word on what CD Projekt RED does end up revealing on February 5. If it’s nothing crucial you can all feel free to ignore everything we’ve just mentioned, but it seems very likely that something big will emerge on that date. More as it appears.

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Earnest Cavalli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…
The Witcher reveal repeats Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest mistake
A player points a gun at a cyborg in Cyberpunk 2077's reveal trailer.

On March 21, CD Projekt Red confirmed a new The Witcher game while revealing a new Unreal Engine 5 partnership with Epic Games. Shortly after that announcement, CD Projekt Red's Global PR Director Radek Grabowski had to clarify some crucial details about this new game and the Epic Games partnership in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/gamebowski/status/1506022957591797760
While this tweet clarifies the biggest misconceptions about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement, it also highlights that the developer announced this game way too early and vaguely. CD Projekt Red is already losing control of some of the discourse around the game and risks repeating one of the biggest mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077's development and marketing: Overpromising.
Cyberpunk 2077's big mistake
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2012 at a press conference. At the time, the developer promised features like a "gripping non-linear story filled with life and detail" and a variety of character classes, weapons, upgrades, implants, and more to choose from. It said the game would "set [a] new standard in the futuristic RPG genre with an exceptional gaming experience."
Cyberpunk 2077 would not release until December 2020, over eight years later. But in the meantime, CD Projekt Red continued to tease the title with trailers and interviews, highlighting the game's ambitious scope and vision. CD Projekt Red developers hyped up how the main story and sidequests intertwined, how the game would feature multiplayer, how cops would be very reactive, and more. Although the game looked and sounded very impressive prior to its release, many of these features and promises were either missing or half-baked in their implementation into Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer
For eight years, an RPG that was supposed to change the genre forever was promised, but in the end, all we got was a fairly standard open-world RPG with a bevy of technical problems at release. The massive backlash happened because people were so excited for Cyberpunk 2077, partly because CD Projekt Red hyped up all of these ambitious features over eight years.
The reality is that game development is an arduous journey that doesn't always go according to plan. Designs change, features are cut, and sometimes the finished product just doesn't come together. CD Projekt Red probably never meant to lie to its fans, but priorities and development timelines shifted and what the developer ultimately delivered with Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't up to snuff.
As CD Projekt Red made the mistake of announcing Cyberpunk 2077 too early and overpromising, I thought the studio would what to share more details on its next game until it was close to release. That was not the case. 
Initial Confirmation
CD Projekt Red was not willing to share a development time frame or release window as part of The Witcher announcement, so it's likely that this game is still several years away. Although the developer didn't reveal many details at this time, announcing the next The Witcher game so early gives s the Polish studio plenty of time to do so. For example, the game's director is already promising that there will be no crunch during the development of this game, something people may hold him accountable for as stories about the game's development emerge. CD Projekt Red must be cautious about what it shares about this new game before launch if it doesn't want another PR disaster, and it already seems to be getting a bit out of hand.  
Grabowski's tweet indicates that there are already some misconceptions about the game. That will likely exponentially worsen as CD Projekt Red continues to tease this title in job listings, interviews, and trailers. It's a dangerous approach, so why did the developer make this "initial confirmation" happen so early? There are several reasons why this could be the case. First off, most of this announcement was focused on CD Projekt Red's partnership with Epic Games and the use of Unreal Engine 5, and the developer wanted to confirm the first game that will be part of this partnership to make it more exciting for fans. 

Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red is still recovering from the backlash toward Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch. Announcing a follow-up title to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now not only restores a little bit of goodwill with fans and investors but will also attract some Unreal Engine-experienced developers who might be nervous to come to CD Projekt Red following Cyberpunk 2077. 2022 has been a year of anticlimatic and purposefully vague game announcements. CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement is simply the latest one to be part of this trend, but it's also one of the most worrying because this developer has made this mistake before.  
While CD Projekt Red felt pressured to confirm this game early, they need to be very careful if they don't want to repeat the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077. The best course of action for CD Projekt Red to take now is to stay completely silent until it has a clear idea of what the finished game will entail. If that isn't the case, this could all be building to disappointment in the year 2030. 

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A new The Witcher game is in development at CD Projekt Red
A talisman depicting a dog with glowing red eyes lays in the snow.

In a surprise post on the franchise's website, CD Projekt Red announced that it is currently developing a new game based on The Witcher, one that isn't a spinoff focusing on Gwent.

https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1505945110722326529

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The Witcher gets a new single-player Gwent spinoff
Concept art for Project Golden Nekker shows a goblin looking at a map.

Up for a round of Gwent? The card game featured in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting a new spinoff game, as revealed by IGN. Code-named Project Golden Nekker, it will be a more single-player focused spin on Gwent.

Gwent is a tactical card game where players slot troops and beasts into two rows to perform close-range and long-range attacks. It was a popular side game within The Witcher 3 -- so much so that CD Projekt Red turned it into its own free-to-play, stand-alone card game that's available on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and mobile devices.

Read more