"Witcher 4 Devs Detail Prep for Anticipated Sequel"

Summary

The Witcher 4's development team prepared for the project by working on a special quest in The Witcher 3, serving as an initiation for new team members.
Ciri will be taking the lead role in The Witcher 4, starting a new trilogy for the character.

The narrative director of The Witcher 4 has shed light on how the team prepared for the development of Ciri's upcoming solo adventure. Fans are still buzzing from their first glimpse of the game, but the team actually began gearing up for it two years ago with a special quest added to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, released in May 2015, follows Geralt as he protects his adopted daughter, Ciri, from the spectral warriors of The Wild Hunt. While Ciri was playable in certain sections of the game, a new trailer unveiled at The Game Awards 2024 in December confirmed that she will take the lead in The Witcher 4.

In late 2022, the sidequest "In the Eternal Fire's Shadow" was added to The Witcher 3. This quest, where Geralt retrieves long-lost equipment, served as both a promotion for the game's next-gen update and a way to canonize the armor worn by Henry Cavill in Netflix's The Witcher series. Philipp Webber, who transitioned from quest designer on The Witcher 3 to narrative director for The Witcher 4, recently shared on social media that this quest was a starting point for new designers and writers joining the series. It acted as their initiation before diving into The Witcher 4's development.

Late Witcher 3 Quest Was a Starting Point for The Witcher 4's Development

Webber noted that working on "In the Eternal Fire's Shadow" was "the perfect start to getting back into the vibe," aligning well with the timeline for The Witcher 4's development. Announced in March 2022, about nine months before the sidequest's release, the game marks the beginning of a new trilogy centered on Ciri. Although some planning likely preceded the announcement, this quest provides insight into how the team members were prepared.

While Webber did not disclose the names of the initiated team members, it's speculated that some may have come from the Cyberpunk 2077 team, given that game's release in 2020. There's also speculation that The Witcher 4 might feature a skill tree similar to that in Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion, supported by the timeline of the new team members' involvement.