CD Projekt has considered a PC only launch for the next entry in The Witcher series, dubbed The Witcher 4, but this is not the strategy it wishes to adopt.
During an interview, CD Projekt vice president of technology, Charles Tremblay, was asked whether the developer would consider an approach similar to the one Larian Studios took with Baldur’s Gate 3 for The Witcher 4, where it launched on PC first, and then consoles a few months later to get a little more time and ensure that the latter versions are released in good shape. In response, he said that it’s something the studio has discussed internally.
Tremblay stated that the development team at CD Projekt is not a 100 percent sure on the decision to launch The Witcher 4 only on PC. He added that it’s hard to say if it wants to go this way at this stage. As far as he understands and based on the strategy the studio wants to pursue, the game will most likely not have a PC-only launch. He doesn’t think a PC-only launch, followed by consoles, is a strategy CD Projekt wants to adopt going forward.
As for the lesson’s learned from Cyberpunk 2077’s launch debacle, Tremblay said that having the console builds working much later into development is unacceptable for CD Projekt going forward, and it’s now part of the studio’s process. According to him, the development team performs internal reviews on console, so that it knows exactly where it stands on all platforms. The mindset of wanting to move forward as long as the PC version runs fine has been altered in order to have broader visibility on the other platforms.
As for The Witcher 4, Tremblay stated that it will be better than both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, as CD Projekt Red doesn’t believe in taking backward steps.
