Fans of The Witcher are eating good right now: we’ve got a free remaster of The Witcher 3 launching this month, a brand new Witcher 3 expansion launching next year and The Witcher 4 coming in 2028. But there is one small bit of bad news: the remake of the original The Witcher is still on the back burner.
CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski spoke to Christoper Dring of The Game File on September 1. The topic of working with Fool’s Theory came up, giving us this: “We started a collaboration with Fool’s Theory. They were supposed to work on The Witcher 1 [remake], but we realized that needed a bit more time because of certain technology dependencies with The Witcher 4.”
This reinforces what the team said nine months ago when they were asked during an earnings call how many people at Fool’s Theory were working on The Witcher remake.
“The majority of the team is currently involved in the other project, and also support for The Witcher 4,” they said. The “other project” ended up being the Songs of the Past expansion for The Witcher 3 which is due out in 2027.
He then added that there was only “some limited team working on TW1”, explaining that the remake was “very much tied with TW4 development”, which was why CD Projekt had made that staffing move in the first place. He concluded that, for the remake itself, “it’s a smaller group of people.”
According to a statement by CD Projekt Red to Gamespot, the remake of the original The Witcher has been put on pause while Fool’s Theory works on the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion.
If you want to go back even farther, during the FY2024 results, CD Projekt Red said: “Due to production process dependencies — among others related to assets and technology — we have decided to temporarily integrate its development with ongoing work on The Witcher 4.”
GameSpot also spotted the interview with The Game File and asked CD Projekt Red directly if the remake was on pause.
“Fool’s Theory team is focused mainly on the development of Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, while a relatively small part of their team is supporting the development of The Witcher 4,” CD Projekt Red told Gamespot in a statement.
They reiterated that a lot of The Witcher remake is actually going to be based on The Witcher 4’s technology, hence the delay as Fool’s Theory helps build the sequel.
Which means we are left with an obvious question: when is The Witcher remake going to launch? On the one hand, this could mean we won’t get to see the remake until after The Witcher 4 launches. On the other hand, it actually depends on exactly what aspects of the sequel Fool’s Theory are working on. They may not be needed for everything, so once Songs of the Past is out of the door that should free up a good chunk of the team. They may be moved onto The Witcher 4 as well, or they could be allowed to get back to work on The Witcher remake, if the The Witcher 4 tools required have been finished.
Whatever it ends up being, it doesn’t look like we’re going to be playing the remake anytime soon.