It's been a busy year so far for a game that's over 10 years old. If you've not been following, last week, we asked "is there really going to be a new Witcher 3 expansion this year?", responding to comments from Borys Nieśpielak, a trusted source of Polish games industry information. Following his remarks, a Noble Securities analyst then added fuel to the fire this week.
Netflix has today confirmed that the fifth and final season of The Witcher will air on the streaming service this year. It follows Season 4 in rapid succession - that series having launched at the end of October last year.
The analyst who forecasted a Witcher 3 expansion release in 2026 has told me they're "100 percent certain [CD Projekt Red] will release significant new content this year".
More than five years after its troubled original release, Cyberpunk 2077 continues to be one of the most relevant open-world RPGs of the modern era. Much of its success comes from the believable relationships it quickly establishes between its key characters and V, but the pre-disaster prologue with preem choom Jackie was never meant to go on for too long.
Polish developer Rebel Wolves has unveiled the main musical theme for its promising dark fantasy role-playing The Blood of Dawnwalker, and surprise surprise, it sounds a lot like The Witcher 3.
UPDATE 4.10PM GMT: CD Projekt Red, for what it's worth, has told me it does not comment on rumour or speculation - the company's usual line.
The first week of January 2026 finds CD Projekt Red in the middle of a structural overhaul. After years of quiet work following the Phantom Liberty launch, the studio cleared its plate. They sold GOG, moved their entire tech stack to Unreal Engine 5, and started pushing The Witcher into a permanent release cycle.
On December 29, 2025, CDPR sold 100% of GOG.com back to its original co-founder, Michał Kiciński, for PLN 90.7 million ($25.2 million). The storefront is now independent again.
For players, this protects the DRM-free mission. Kiciński wants GOG to return to its original purpose: reviving classic games and ensuring digital ownership. The studio will still launch future titles like The Witcher 4 on GOG, but the storefront can now focus on its Preservation Program without needing to compete with Steam’s scale or answer to quarterly earnings reports.
Rumors from Polish industry insider Borys Nieśpielak and financial analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski at Noble Securities point toward a massive, paid expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt dropping in May 2026.
This DLC connects the original trilogy to the new saga. It focuses on Ciri after the main game ends. The marketing features the School of the Lynx medallion, a new Witcher order that represents a break from the dying traditions of Kaer Morhen. Playing as Ciri lets us see the founding of this school, which positions her as the anchor for Project Polaris.
The internal Warsaw team isn’t developing this. Fool’s Theory—the studio remaking The Witcher 1—is handling it. This team includes many lead developers who built the original Wild Hunt. They’re using the familiar REDengine to deliver a standalone-style expansion (projected at $30) while the main CDPR staff stays focused on the new engine for The Witcher 4.
The transition to Unreal Engine 5.x is the foundation for everything CDPR plans between now and 2030. The State of Unreal tech demo showed how this shift affects actual gameplay.
Nanite Foliage means the forests of Kovir (the rumored setting for Polaris) use high-fidelity geometry. Trees and grass no longer pop in as you get closer.
Lumen Lighting makes all lighting dynamic. If you cast a Sign or walk past a light source, the shadows and reflections update instantly without the performance hit of traditional ray-tracing.
FastGeo Streaming is a tool CDPR co-developed with Epic Games. It streams massive amounts of data instantly, which matters for the dense urban environments planned for the Cyberpunk sequel.
The current plan splits development geographically so The Witcher and Cyberpunk don’t fight for the same resources.
| Project | Lead Team | Current Status | Expected Release |
|---|---|---|---|
| W3 Expansion | Fool’s Theory | Finishing Touches | May 2026 |
| Polaris (W4) | CDPR Warsaw | Full Production | Late 2027 |
| Sirius (Multiplayer) | CDPR / Molasses | Conceptual | 2028 |
| Orion (CP2) | CDPR Boston | Pre-production | 2030 |
Over 400 people in Warsaw are working on Polaris. It starts a new trilogy that CDPR plans to release over six years. By using a shared UE5 technical base, they expect to release The Witcher 5 and 6 much faster than previous sequels.
The Boston hub is now home to the Cyberpunk sequel. Lead designers from Phantom Liberty are building the team in North America. They want to integrate multiplayer directly into the core experience this time, turning Night City into a social hub instead of just a single-player playground. The game entered pre-production in May 2025 with an expected release no earlier than 2030.
The post CDPR 2026: The New Witcher Era and the GOG Reboot appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
The DRM-free PC game store GOG has been acquired by CD Projekt and GOG co-founder Michał Kiciński, branching it off from the CD Projekt Group and going private.
There’s no plans to change GOG’s business model, which continues to focus on providing a source for classic games, now with a dedicated preservation programme to ensure a select library continue to run on modern systems, and to sell all titles (old and new) without DRM.
While now independent of CD Projekt Group, they have immediately penned a deal to ensure that CDPR games remain on GOG going forward.
So, why the change? Was GOG in trouble? All parties say that no, it was doing well and is profitable on its own terms, but the CDPR want to focus fully on developing games.
“With our focus now fully on an ambitious development roadmap and expanding our franchises with new high-quality products, we felt this was the right time for this move,” said Michał Nowakowski, Joint CEO of CD Projekt. “For a long time now, GOG has been operating independently. Now it’s going into very good hands — we are convinced that with the support of Michał Kiciński, one of GOG’s co-founders, its future will be full of great projects and successes.”
Kiciński was a co-founder of both CD Projekt in 1994, and then also their digital storefront Good Old Games (rebranded simply as GOG) in 2008. He left the company at the end of 2010, but has remained one of its largest shareholders, with 9.99%, and his brother is a chair on the board.
In the announcement, he said, “CD Projekt and GOG share the same roots and values: freedom, independence, and a genuine sense of ownership. I believe that CD Projekt, with its exceptional AAA games, will stand, as always, behind the GOG offering — making GOG the best place on the planet to purchase The Witcher and Cyberpunk games, both existing titles and the new ones we all anticipate so much.
“GOG and Michał Kiciński are aligned by a shared belief that games should live forever,” said Maciej Gołębiewski, Managing Director of GOG. “In a market that’s getting more crowded, more locked-in, and forgets classic games at an increasing pace, we’re doubling down on what only GOG does: reviving classics, keeping them playable on modern PCs, and helping great games find their audience over time.”
Source: GOG
The upcoming unannounced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt DLC seems to be the new worst-kept secret in gaming. Details about the new content began to surface last year, revealing that it will bridge the gap between the 2015 RPG and The Witcher 4. The latest report reveals even more details about the DLC, including where it will be set.
In a new report from IGN Poland, it is revealed that the publication knew about The Witcher 3 DLC years ago, but did not report on it as they only had information from one source. However, now that it seems all but confirmed, they are sharing what they were told about the upcoming DLC.
“We have a confession to make. We’ve known about work on a potential new expansion behind the scenes for a very long time,” reads IGN’s article. We don’t want to reveal exact dates to protect our sources, but the topic first appeared on our radar years ago. Our source — someone who has repeatedly provided us with reliable, insider information — confirmed directly that a new expansion was in the works, albeit at a very early stage.”
“At the time, we were hearing signs that the team was fascinated by a completely different destination than the frozen north,” the article continues. “There were many indications that the developers were keenly interested in exploring Zerrikania.”
For those unaware, in The Witcher series, Zerrikania is a desert region located to the east of the Northern Kingdoms and the Nilfgaardian Empire. Although the article provides some logic behind Zerrikania being the location for The Witcher 3 DLC, they do not that this information was given to them years ago and development could have changed since then.
“However, we must remember that years have passed since we first learned about a potential DLC set in the desert, and concepts in game development sometimes evolve,” reads the article. “Perhaps the new DLC, after evolving the concept, will take us to the same regions as The Witcher 4.”
Will The Witcher 3 DLC be set in the deserts of Zerrikania or the snowy mountains of Kovir? We’ll just have to wait and see.
The post The Witcher 3 Upcoming DLC Details Possibly Leaked for PS5 RPG appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Gerry from the River rides up to a noticeboard for the second time this week. Between contracts, he scans the pinned scraps for a fresh job to take on, only for his eyes to rest on another particularly peculiar bit of prose. 'There's a mysterious extra DLC for The Witcher 3 in the works', this bit of paper claims. 'Oh yeah, I heard about that,' Gerry's brain responds. 'Also, it reportedly might be set in Zerrikania,' says the paper. 'Ooh, that's new,' the Witcherman's noggin thinks.
No, I'm not busy. Ignore the very famous actor acting moody in the corner, he'll be quiet if you pay him no mind. Also, do like I am and just pretend my holo-phone doesn't have a million urgent messages about some relic sitting in its inbox. Just sit here on the sofa, in this Cyberpunk 2077 flat, and watch as the big flying thing with Dogtown's military dictator's face on it floats between my futuristic kitchen and lounge, thanks to a new mod.
Warning: Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 lie ahead.
Cyberpunk 2077's narrative really kicks into gear when, after a job gone wrong, metal-infused merc protagonist V realises they're now living in the shadow of a Keanu Reeves-shaped clock. Despite this, you're free to while away hours doing a million things other than confronting your urgent mortality problem. It's something even CD Projekt themselves have joked about.
Gerry from the River rides up to a noticeboard. Between contracts, he scans the pinned scraps for a fresh job to take on, only for his eyes to rest on one particularly peculiar bit of prose. 'There's a mysterious extra DLC for The Witcher 3 in the works', this bit of paper claims. 'Oh, you mean that anniversary patch which was delayed last year?' Gerry's mutant brain asks in response. 'No, seemingly not that one,' the sentient scrap replies.
Gerry grumbles to himself in mild confusion. The RPG's a decade old at this point, and while CD's love of relentlessly adding more stuff to their games is well-documented, they're surely busy focusing on the likes of The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2?
If a CEO says their company is going to do that something sounds ridiculously unrealistic, or borderline unachievable if you actually take a second to think about it, you can probably assume that this is for the ears of shareholders. With that said, CD Projekt Red recently held a financial call (thanks, IGN), where co-CEO Michał Nowakowski made some comments about The Witcher 4… and The Witcher 5 and 6, all of which are apparently planned to be released within a six-year period. Right!
So, an ambitious Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer mod called CyberMP has been in development for a little while now, and the folks behind it have just concluded its "most stable and successful" closed beta test yet. Tweaks to key elements like vehicle and player synchronisation, as well as a new interface and custom lobbies went down well with testers, while technical gremlins were minimal.
If this is your first time hearing about CyberMP, it's a project that's currently being worked on by a team of 10, having first come to prominence last summer. Its goal is to offer multi-person deathmatches and races to Cyberpunkers, rather than full GTA Online-style co-op missioning or gigging.
Cyberpunk 2's dev team is set to grow substantially over the next couple of years, as CD Projekt ramp up development. While most of their ranks right now are on The Witcher 4, a game that's at least made some public cameos even if it's still sans release date, once 2027 rolls around, Cyberpunk 2 looks like it won't be too far behind.
This info comes from the company's latest financial report, covering the time running from July 1st to September 30th this year.
If there was any way to deflate someone before The Game Awards, it’s with the words, “No new Witcher 4 content.” Sad but true. After last year’s surprise trailer, CD Projekt RED will be content to sit back and enjoy the show (and maybe even net that Most Anticipated Game award).
That doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of other details to keep us busy, like the fact that The Witcher 4 isn’t launching next year, according to studio co-CEO Michał Nowakowski. Was it that obvious, especially after the company said we wouldn’t see it until 2027 at the earliest? Probably not, but development is proceeding as planned since it entered full production last year.
Since then, we’ve had some great new reveals, from the Unreal Engine 5 tech showcase to the potential inclusion of plot elements from the upcoming Crossroads of Ravens prequel novel. CD Projekt RED recently confirmed that the development team consists of 447 members, a whopping increase of three developers over the previous quarter. It may not seem like much, but it likely includes Karel Kolmann, game designer on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, who’s joined as a senior quest designer, and that’s great news.
But the most interesting bit to emerge from a post-financials conference for the CD Projekt Group is that the team will still deliver the new Witcher trilogy within the promised six-year period. Remember when it was still called Project Polaris? That promise, which seemed borderline unbelievable at the time.
Nowakowski talked about how happy the team has been with Unreal Engine 5, how it’s evolving, and “how we are learning how to make it work within a huge open-world game, as The Witcher 4 is meant to be.” And when prompted about whether this meant a “shorter and more predictable cadence” for the sequels, he responded, “In a way, yes, I do believe that further games should be delivered in a shorter period of time – as we had stated before, our plan still is to launch the whole trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that would mean we would plan to have a shorter development time between The Witcher 4 and The Witcher 5, between The Witcher 5 and The Witcher 6 and so on.”
So there you go, The Witcher 5 and The Witcher 6, officially named and confirmed. All joking aside, it still feels like a near-impossible proposition, especially with CD Projekt RED planning to allocate more resources and development team members to Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, Project Orion (aka, the tentatively named Cyberpunk 2). After all, The Witcher was released in 2007, followed by The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2011 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015 – an eight-year journey, that too one where crunch became increasingly common at the studio.
The big difference is that the first game utilized a completely different engine (BioWare’s Aurora, funnily enough) from the others, which were built on the studio’s own REDengine. And one look at The Witcher 2 and 3 will tell you that a lot of work went into raising the bar for the latter, so probably not the best comparison.
Instead, we can actually look at a completely different trilogy – Mass Effect. BioWare utilized Unreal Engine 3 for all three titles – Mass Effect 1 in 2007, Mass Effect 2 in 2010 and Mass Effect 3 in 2012. They all released within the same console generation, though it’s obvious that the third game built on much of the second’s groundwork.
But once again, BioWare had to essentially rush to complete the third game within two years – a process that left everyone at the studio fried. Worst of all, they didn’t even get much chance to rest, as they had to shift to Dragon Age: Inquisition and crunch once more. Still, three titles in five years, all Game of the Year contenders – ending controversies notwithstanding – is still impressive.
So in a way, it is possible, but the biggest worry is whether CD Projekt RED will have to crunch to achieve this for the new Witcher trilogy. One possibility is that it’s already building out much of what it will require to develop subsequent titles. After all, Polaris was announced in 2022, and the studio has been working with Unreal Engine 5 for over four years, meaning development began even sooner. If The Witcher 4 arrives by late 2027 or early 2028, is it all that unreasonable to assume that all those years would have been enough time to deliver one full-fledged Witcher title, the biggest yet, and to lay the groundwork for its sequels?
“But what about Cyberpunk 2?” is the obvious question, especially how it would impact development. Wouldn’t expanding its development studios over the next two years negatively impact the new Witcher trilogy? I actually have a theory on that.
CD Projekt RED has said plenty about building up its new Boston studio, so it’s more likely to hire new developers to increase its numbers. A job listing from last September for a Lead Network Engineer also hints that there will be multiplayer. That means post-launch content (aside from a potential expansion or two), and for that, a dedicated studio would be necessary.
And even if that doesn’t happen, it’s more evident than ever that the IP is a long-term franchise for CD Projekt RED. Cyberpunk 2077 is currently their biggest revenue earner, reaching 35 million sold faster than The Witcher 3. It’s essentially their Grand Theft Auto (The Witcher being Red Dead Redemption in this case). If all the tie-ups and collaborations, including the upcoming Edgerunners 2, are any indication, this is essentially a different revenue stream for the company. While it’s still possible that it would shift developers between projects, it’s unlikely that the majority of The Witcher 4’s team would shift to Cyberpunk 2. Keeping the team together to deliver this trilogy makes far more sense (see Final Fantasy 7 Remake).
Of course, this is assuming that CD Projekt RED is committed to its vision for both games and that there are no hiccups. One benefit of this promised timeline is that it all hinges on when The Witcher 4 will release. And while I doubt the higher-ups want a GTA 6-style delay, there is definitely some breathing room for their developers. If Phantom Liberty is any indication (over 10 million sold and counting), the company is probably realizing the benefits of avoiding crunch or massive overhauls in the end stretch.
Too long, didn’t watch, the answer is: Yes, we could very well see The Witcher 4, 5 and 6 release within six years of each other. Would it be too much of an oversaturation? Unlikely – The Witcher 4 is guaranteed to be a best-seller, simply on name value alone. If The Witcher 5 arrives about two or three years later and sets up a major hook for The Witcher 6 to deliver an incredible finale, then it could end up as one of the best video game trilogies of all time (if not the best).
CD Projekt RED has all the time in the world to knock it out of the park, but either way, even with all the preparation in the world, it’s going to be a mad sprint for home base.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a comeback story for the ages. While I still don't think it has lived up to the pre-development hype, there's a really solid linear adventure to be found in the gargantuan open world of Night City. The game is now touted as one of the best RPGs ever made, rivaling developer CD Projekt Red's previous effort, The Witcher 3. I still think the Continent has a more believable, living, breathing world and Night City feels a little like a façade at times, but that doesn't stop me from hoping for more adventures in the studio's sci-fi offering.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Cyberpunk 2077 hints at new update for fifth anniversary, so here's when you'll need to tune in for more
