The Witcher 4 is being lead by Gwent's game director

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Jason Slama has already responded to speculation surrounding crunch

CD Projekt Red announce new Witcher game with snow surrounding a cat emblem
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

The Witcher 4 is being headed up by the game director of Gwent.

Yesterday on March 21, shortly after CD Projekt Red announced that a brand new Witcher game was in development, developer Jason Slama posted the tweet just below. The Gwent game director confirms that he'll be taking up the same role throughout development of the new Witcher game, heading up the brand new venture at CD Projekt Red.

Additionally, Slama responded to someone reflecting on past reports of mandatory crunch at CD Projekt Red. "Never on my watch!" was the response Slama gave to the person speculating that there'd be crunch involved with the development of The Witcher 4, which it's fair to say is quite the bold statement from the former Gwent game director.

Nonetheless, we know precious little about this new Witcher game right now, and we don't even know if it'll actually be called "The Witcher 4." CDPR announced the new game as the start of a "new saga," seemingly reaffirming that longstanding protagonist Geralt wouldn't be returning for the new adventure (which the developer previously confirmed before The Witcher 3 even launched back in 2015).

Elsewhere, CDPR revealed that the new Witcher game wouldn't be using the REDengine, last seen in action on Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, but would instead transfer to the outsourced Unreal Engine 5. Despite the engine belonging to Epic Games, CDPR stated that this wouldn't mean the upcoming game would have any kind of exclusivity for the Epic Games Store.

Here's why we think Ciri should be the star of The Witcher 4, a perfect reset for the RPG franchise. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.