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By Carli Velocci Published November 29, 2024 12:36 PM
CD Projekt RedFuture CD Projekt Red games will hopefully avoid the fate that befell Cyberpunk 2077 at launch thanks to changes in the studio’s development process, according to a company executive.
CDPR is working on a number of projects, including multiple games in The Witcher universe. It recently announced that Project Polaris — which many people are referring to as The Witcher 4, although that hasn’t been confirmed — had entered “full-scale production.” We don’t know much of anything about this new game, but it’ll use Unreal Engine 5 instead of the proprietary REDengine. Future projects will also utilize the Epic Games-owned engine.
Eurogamer published an extensive interview Friday with VP of technology Charles Tremblay, who explained that the switch will not only help CDPR work on multiple games at once but it’ll help to counter any of the issues the studio ran into while developing Cyberpunk 2077 while ensuring The Witcher 4 will be bigger than its predecessor, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, one of the best games of all time.
“And the next game we do will not be smaller, and it will not be worse. So it will be better, bigger, greater than The Witcher 3, it will be better than Cyberpunk — because for us, it’s unacceptable [to launch that way]. We don’t want to go back,” Tremblay said.
The studio will also be expanding the pre-production process, has reduced its head count to counter bloat, and will ensure that games will work on console earlier in the pipeline instead of just targeting one platform. This does mean that games will likely take longer to develop, but the hope is that they’ll be in a better state.
“With the Witcher or you know, with Cyberpunk in the future, it’s only down to us. Everything can fail, but it’s our role to make sure it doesn’t,” Tremblay said. “And remembering and understanding that I think is the biggest reason for me to be optimistic, because in the company everyone’s constantly worried — but worried in a good way, if you know what I mean.”
While Cyberpunk 2077 has reportedly sold over 30 million copies since launch, according to an X post from this week, it launched in an incomplete state, with countless bugs and poor cross-generation console performance. It had so many problems that it was unplayable for many users. It has since gained back player goodwill thanks to the well-received Phantom Liberty DLC and a successful anime spinoff on Netflix, but CDPR had to evaluate how it developed games and make some changes.
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
God of War Ragnarok shares a key strength with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
God of War Ragnarok’s main story is memorable, but some of the smaller moments are what have stuck with me most since completing it. I'm not just talking about its moments of quiet, but its optional Favors as well. These sidequests can be entirely ignored, but skipping them is a mistake as they contain some of the game’s best scenes. It's a trait that God of War Ragnarok shares with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of the best RPGs of the last decade.
In some large RPGs, sidequests can often boil down to boring fetch quests, or they simply may not have as much polish put into their writing. As a result, they can feel like content bloat that does more harm than good to the game’s pacing. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and God of War Ragnarok avoid this problem by elevating these sidequests, making the entire adventure feel more cohesive and ensuring that the small moments stick out as some of the best.
More than a side thing
Like God of War Ragnarok, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features a lengthy main story full of memorable characters, set pieces, and boss fights. While those alone would have made it a strong RPG, it’s remembered as an all-time great because of how rich its world is, something that's reflected in its side content. There were quests like Ghosts of Past, which pays off the character arc of Witcher 2 character Letho, but it's entirely possible to finish the game without ever seeing it.
Others, like Return to Crookback Bog, turn what could just be some fun supernatural fights into a chilling tale about abuse and broken families. While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s main narrative is strong, these side moments are what make it a game that sticks with you years after release. I can already tell the same will be true of God of War Ragnarok, as some of my favorite missions in the game are entirely optional Favors.
An early game Favor called The Weight of Chains sees Kratos, Mimir, and Atreus freeing a giant Lyngbakr sea creature that Mimir imprisoned while working with Odin. They manage to break its chains, but find that it now struggles to move and do what it used to. This sidequest takes a series of somewhat standard combat encounters and puzzles and spins them into critical aspects of a memorable tale. The Weight of Chains reflects on how Kratos and Mimir’s reckless actions have had irreversible consequences, but they now have an opportunity to be better people in the future.
Another standout Favor called Secret of the Sands, where Kratos and Atreus free a trapped jellyfish-like creature called a Hafgufa, is also quite beautiful. The short story shows what Kratos will do to be able to spend more time with his son in the face of Ragnarok. However ordinary these sidequests may be from a gameplay standpoint, their narrative relevance and level of polish are on par with some of God of War Ragnarok’s main quests. This high effort even applies to some side missions that wholly exist with NPCs in the game’s overworld, ones that aren't even built around huge set pieces. For example, there’s The Lost Treasure quest.
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