Well, that’s what CD Projekt RED (CDPR) is officially calling the game, not Polaris – and the new protagonist will be a character we saw in The Witcher 3!

The announcement video showed Ciri, and for good reason: she’s the new protagonist, and according to Sebastien Kalemba, director of The Witcher 4, and Gosia Mitręga, the producer in charge, they chose her because Ciri was already the “heart” of the third part, and they thought it was natural that she should take over from Geralt. She was also the big surprise in the video presented at The Game Awards.

“I think it’s important to remember that although I personally love Ciri, and there are millions of players and fans who love her too, it’s not just about the sentiment for the old players, but we want to go through to the wider audience. There are a lot of people who were so young when The Witcher 3 came out, so it will be a whole new experience for them. Ciri is just a character that we want to bring in and give an origin story in a world that part of the world knows, but this is a new opening, a new saga, a new beginning: With this great respect for players with the [sentimental attachment].

I think you have a pretty good sense of what the character needs to be shaped into, right? So it’s natural I would say for young characters that are struggling, although I wouldn’t compare it to just Batman or Spider-Man. There are some similarities when it comes to fantasy, but to take one thing… Geralt was already so defined that he had his own code that he developed over years. So he knew what to choose between A, B and C, he was really defined, grounded.

Ciri, she is more on her way, defining the way she deals with the battles around the problems, the quests, and I think that gives us a great opportunity and also for the players to be able to define her on that journey, to define the way, the Witcher she will be. What kind of Witcher she will be during the adventure and the story, right? So she cannot control everything, but she definitely brought the change. But she’s definitely more like a blank page, she’s organic, she’s all about learning right now and becoming the Witcher her way,” Kalemba and Mitręga said.

And what about Geralt? It’s been confirmed that he will appear in The Witcher 4. Where does the game stand in development? They’re not much further along than the last time we heard something like this. CDPR is glad that they don’t have to call the game Polaris anymore, because now the press can call the next project of the Polish developers The Witcher 4…

“We went into full production a couple of weeks ago, and right now the team is more than 400 people, set up and working together in this structure. So we already have pipelines and we are really excited because this is the moment where you know what to do. You’ve got tools, you’ve got everything, and we’re scaled up and ready to go and deliver the game to you at some point. So that’s where we are, we’re just about to go into production. It was perfect timing for us. Like perfect, it clicked. Going into production, then we had the trailer that we were kind of finishing up and it all clicked. It’s perfect fuel, great motivation for all of us. So I think the team is super excited. Even to the extent that we can finally say The Witcher 4 in public and it’s allowed, right? This is no longer a codename, so that is exciting. We have to try to learn not to call it Polaris anymore because we are so used to it. Even that detail is super satisfying, right? We are happy, and our amazing team is ready,” the duo added.

Finally, we don’t have to call it Polaris…

Source: PCGamer