The Witcher 4 and its sequels to cost £663,000,000 to develop says analyst

The Polish analyst claiming Witcher 3 is getting new DLC has shared figures for how much The Witcher 4 and the next two games could cost.

Video game budgets are typically kept under wraps but it’s very apparent that development, especially for triple-A titles, has only grown more expensive over the years.

Some budgets have inadvertently leaked out, such as Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 costing a whopping $300 million (£237 million) to make, while older Call Of Duty games from Activision somehow cost even more.

Now, an analyst has put together an estimate for CD Projekt’s The Witcher 4 and if you include marketing costs, the project could set the studio back more than £580 million.

This comes from a report by Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski (via Polish outlet Strefa Inwestorów), who you’ll recall has been saying that The Witcher 3 will get new DLC later this year.

‘The extension and structure of current development expenditures have prompted us to increase the game’s projected budget,’ it reads, adding that The Witcher 4 is predicted to launch in late 2027 (CD Projekt has only said 2027 is the earliest the game could launch).

For development costs, Chrzanowski says CD Projekt is expected to spend 1.4 billion złoty, which is about £290 million. However, Chrzanowski adds that the studio will likely spend ‘similar costs’ on marketing. This would bring it to about 2.8 billion złoty altogether, which is around £580 million.

That’s already a staggering amount, but with The Witcher 4 set to be the first entry in a new trilogy of games, Chrzanowski believes all three will set CD Projekt back a combined 3.2 billion złoty (about £663 million).

CD Projekt is expected to use The Witcher 4 as a baseline for future games, though, which is why that final total isn’t even higher. The studio can save time and money not needing to constantly build new assets and the like.

In fact, during an investor’s call this past November, CD Projekt’s co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said that the goal is to have the full trilogy completed within a six year timeframe; something that’s achievable thanks to the shift to Unreal Engine 5.

‘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,’ he said.

Meanwhile, as fans wait for CD Projekt to confirm the rumoured Witcher 3 DLC, a group of modders have released their own custom multiplayer mode for the game on PC.

Simply dubbed The Witcher Online, it does exactly what it says on the tin and lets you explore the world and complete quests with friends, as your own customisable version of protagonist Geralt.

Judging by the trailer, it seems to still be a work-in-progress (one player just randomly flies upwards at one point), but it’s already been downloaded over 10,000 times from NexusMods.

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