Cyberpunk developer Projekt RED shifts focus for ‘Witcher 4’ after Cyberpunk 2077 launch issues

The Polish studio behind Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher series, Projekt RED, has changed how it is developing its next major title, The Witcher 4, following the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020. Company co-head Michał Nowakowski told Game Developer that the studio is no longer prioritising the PC version and will not postpone technical fixes until later stages of development.

The Witcher 4 is now being built simultaneously for PC and consoles. Previously, Projekt RED focused first on PC graphics and later adapted the game for consoles, a strategy that worked for The Witcher 3. After the problems with Cyberpunk 2077, the studio does not want to repeat that approach.

Nowakowski said that anyone visiting the studio can run The Witcher 4 on PC, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X and see that it runs smoothly. He also noted that the studio has tightened quality checks before moving to the next development stage.

In the past, developers sometimes skipped one or two tasks hoping to fix them later. While this sometimes worked, other times problems piled up like a snowball and became harder to resolve. Cyberpunk 2077 launched with many bugs, especially on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Over the following years, Projekt RED released major updates, stabilised the game and largely restored player trust.

The next big release from Projekt RED is The Witcher 4, scheduled for 2028. A remaster of The Witcher 3 is due in September 2026, followed by a new story expansion, Ballads of the Past, in 2027. The studio is also working on a sequel to Cyberpunk and a remake of the first Witcher game, both planned for 2029.

Reported by RB.ru.