New game in The Witcher world to be developed after Cyberpunk 2077

By Tyler Treese Published April 25, 2023

The next entry in CD Projekt Red’s highly successful video game adaptation of The Witcher series is already in the planning stages. The developer’s CEO, Adam Kicinski, broke the news while speaking to Polish press and said the developer already has a small team working on a concept for another single-player title that is awaiting further development.

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Once the studio finishes work on Cyberpunk 2077, which is set to release on September 17, it will reorganize to start work on the next game in The Witcher franchise. CD Projekt Red will divide into three internal teams with the largest group working on a multiplayer mode of Cyberpunk 2077 and another creating additions to the base game. The smallest of the three teams will start work on the developer’s next role-playing game.

Kicinski stresses that the next title is not The Witcher 4 as the adventures of Geralt of Rivia was always meant to be a trilogy. He also reiterated that the studio wants to continue creating stories within that universe in addition to what it is currently doing with Cyberpunk 2077. “All planned games are either Witcher or Cyberpunk,” the studio head said.

Despite the latest title in The Witcher series entering development later this year, fans will still have to wait quite some time. Kicinski quickly shot the idea of a quick turnaround of its next ambitious RPG down when asked. He added the studio’s projects always last four to five years and that it’d be “difficult to imagine” it releasing any sooner than that as they want to prioritize quality. CD Projekt Red Vice President of Finance Piotr Nielubowicz also chimed in on the next title’s development by saying that it will take less commitment than Cyberpunk 2077 as they’re working in a world they’ve already established rather than crafting one from the ground up.

CD Projekt Red originally released The Witcher in 2007. Based upon the Polish novels of the same name, the RPG received critical praise upon release. The company followed it up with The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2011 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015 to even more commercial and critical acclaim. Cyberpunk 2077 will mark its first game outside of the fantasy universe.

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When not playing or writing about games, Tyler Treese serves as the Senior Editor at Wrestlezone. An experienced writer that…

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Relic guide

Songbird in a dress in Phantom Liberty.

The first and only expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 has far more than just a new area and missions to fill your time. Phantom Liberty is part of the 2.0 update that almost completely overhauls the systems introduced in the base game to be more in line with the original vision, It also adds new mechanics to flesh out the experience even further. Once you start the expansion, the first thing you will probably notice is the completely revamped skill system, which now includes a brand new tree called the Relic tree. These skills are all brand new, and alone could be reason enough to start a fresh adventure in Night City. But these Relic skills don't function like the other skills where you simply need to level up to unlock and upgrade them. Don't worry, Samurai, we'll transfer all the data you need on how to get Relic skills and what each of them does.
How to get Relic points
The new Relic skill tree is the only new feature in terms of skills that you need to purchase the Phantom Liberty expansion to access. Once you begin the expansion, the tree and a few starting points will be given to you automatically from a new character. To get more Relic points, you have to track down a new feature called Militech Data Terminals rather than simply leveling up. These points will only pop up on your map once you're close to them, so you will need to search them out for the most part.
All Relic skills

The Relic skill tree is broken down into three branches: Jailbreak, Emergency Cloaking, and Vulnerability. Just like any normal skill tree, you need to unlock each skill in order to gain access to the next one, so planning out which branch you want to invest in before spending your precious points is vital, especially since some trees have many more levels to them than others. Here's what each branch gives you:
Jailbreak
Jailbreak: Unlocks new abilities for your Arm Cyberwear, including the Mantis Blades, Gorilla Arms, Projectile Launch System, and Monowire.

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077: How to start Phantom Liberty DLC

A pyramid from Cyberpunk 2077.

The rehabilitation of Cyberpunk 2077 finally culminates in both the release of the 2.0 update and the substantial DLC expansion called Phantom Liberty. Between these two, plus all the changes made in the years since launch, the once unstable and buggy game is finally living up to its potential. While everything up until this point has been free, including the 2.0 changes, Phantom Liberty is the first and only piece of paid content. Giving players an entirely new area in Dogtown to explore, plus a lengthy main story and tons of new side missions, it's the biggest reason to reinstall this ambitious title. But how exactly can you start the DLC since it is meant to slot into the story of the main game rather than take place before or after? We've hacked in and downloaded all the data you need on how to start the Phantom Liberty DLC.
How to start Phantom Liberty
There are actually a few different ways to get into Phantom Liberty depending on your preference and whether or not you've played the base game. The easiest way to get directly into it is through the main menu. With the DLC installed, you will have an option to jump directly into the expansion, even if you haven't played the main game yet. This sounds great for those who want to see the new stuff right away, but it isn't recommended if you haven't played the base game at all. You will be given a character automatically leveled up and placed at the proper point in the story for the DLC to take place with no context or tutorial on how to play. Note that picking this option doesn't lock you out of any of the base game content.

For new players who want to experience Phantom Liberty more naturally, you will need to play the opening hours of Cyberpunk 2077 until you complete the "Transmission" mission before the quest that starts the DLC will trigger.

Computing

Cyberpunk 2077 might force you to upgrade your CPU

Cyberpunk 2077 running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

The highly anticipated expansion to Cyberpunk 2077 is just around the corner, and with the release of Phantom Liberty, many gamers might need to start thinking of upgrading their PCs. Now, CD Projekt Red has shed a little more light on the matter. It seems that some people might need to swap to one of the best CPUs, and even those already running modern hardware should still look into their cooling systems because Cyberpunk 2077 is just about to become a lot more CPU-intensive.

Filip Pierściński, who is a leading scene programmer at CD Projekt Red, shared an update regarding the game's CPU utilization going forward. Cyberpunk 2077 is famous for requiring one of the top GPUs, but it historically hasn't made the most out of the CPU. In fact, players had to rely on mods to boost CPU utilization, as the game itself wasn't able to effectively utilize Intel's hyper-threading (HT) and AMD's simultaneous multi-threading (SMT). The good news is that those mods can now be put to rest, but the bad news is that if your hardware is a little outdated, it might struggle to run Cyberpunk 2077 for a whole new reason now.