Thanks to the critical reception of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it should come as no surprise that developer CD Projekt RED is facing quite a bit of pressure in doing even better with the upcoming The Witcher 4. In an interview with GamesRadar, narrative director Philipp Weber has spoken about the pressures of trying to surpass The Witcher 3, and how the studio is moving forward with the next game in the franchise.
According to Weber, “‘Witcher 3 was one of the best games ever made, how are they going to top it?’” he went on to mention that he agrees with discourse surrounding the 2015 RPG, saying “I’m like ‘yeah, how are we going to do that?’”
Despite all of the pressure, however, he also acknowledged that the quality of a game is subjective rather than being a “mathematical” property that can be derived to judge whether or not a game is great. “I don’t see video games as mathematical,” he said.
“I think the way we want to do justice to the legacy of The Witcher 3 is to take the philosophy we had during The Witcher 3 – how to make a game, how to really care about these things, how to tell stories – and keep that philosophy,” Weber continued. “At the same time, there are new questions we want to answer, because this is supposed to feel like a true sequel, not just redoing what we did before. And I think it’s really trying to have that healthy mix of really moving forward and also trying out some new things, but doing justice to what was there, not trying to beat it.”
Further illustrating his point about the subjectivity of liking games, Weber also revealed that his favourite title in the franchise has been the original The Witcher. He noted that, despite its dated visuals and gameplay, as well as its overall janky nature, he still loves it. “I know many people have problems with that but I love it,” he said.
This has emboldened Weber to stop chasing the idea of trying to surpass the previous game and instead just make sure to make a title that players will enjoy. He said that the studio wants to “just make sure that some people will really love The Witcher 4, and hopefully those should be the people that love The Witcher 3, because the philosophy we had – how we make games, how we make quests, what The Witcher means to us – it’s the same one.”
Earlier this month, Weber had also spoken about how CD Projekt RED is using lessons it had learned from the development of The Witcher 3 for The Witcher 4. These lessons the studio is making use of for The Witcher 4 comes down to how the game will give players choices, and how consequences of these choices will then come about. Check out our coverage for more details.
The Witcher 4 is currently under development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. CD Projekt RED has not yet announced a release date.
