CD Projekt Red has provided its clearest timeline yet for The Witcher 4. In a video shared ahead of Gamescom, joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski stated that the studio is targeting a 2028 release window for the next mainline entry in the series.
"I know it’s a bit of a wait, and you’d love to play it sooner, but let the team cook. It will be worth the wait," Nowakowski said. He confirmed that The Witcher 4 will not be shown at Gamescom this week, either in the form of a new trailer or playable demo.
The 2028 target marks the first time CD Projekt Red has publicly narrowed the window beyond simply ruling out a 2026 launch. The studio has previously described The Witcher 4 as the start of a new trilogy that it hopes to complete within a six-year span. If the first game arrives in 2028 and that schedule holds, The Witcher 6 could arrive around 2034.
More than 500 people are currently working on the project, which Nowakowski called the studio’s biggest, boldest, and most ambitious game to date. Ciri will take the lead role, with Geralt stepping into a supporting position after starring in the previous trilogy.
Gamescom Focus Remains on Witcher 3
While The Witcher 4 stays under wraps, CD Projekt Red will use Gamescom to highlight Songs of the Past, the upcoming expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The DLC is scheduled for release in 2027 and will give players a new adventure with Geralt. It is expected to appear during Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live presentation and will also be shown at the studio’s booth.
Nowakowski teased "a surprise or two" during the company’s Gamescom livestreams, though he did not specify what those reveals might include. The studio is also developing a multiplayer Witcher project under the codename Project Siris, though that title recently saw staffing reductions.
A Long Road Ahead
It has been more than a decade since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched in 2015. The lengthy gap reflects both the scale of CD Projekt Red’s ambitions and the longer development cycles that have become standard across the industry. The studio’s history with high-profile delays on both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 means the 2028 window should still be viewed as a target rather than a hard date.
For now, fans will have to settle for the promise of more Witcher 3 content next year while the larger sequel continues cooking. The 2028 window at least gives a clearer sense of how long the wait is expected to last. Whether CD Projekt Red can hit that target, and whether the new trilogy stays on its ambitious six-year schedule, will be among the bigger questions surrounding the studio over the next several years.