CD Projekt Red has recently revealed that it has found a new direction for Project Sirius, one of the new Witcher games currently planned by the company. This is excellent news for The Witcher fans, as they may no longer fear that CD Projekt Red could end up canceling this title.
At the beginning of 2023, CD Projekt Red announced a few Witcher games for the near future, including a project for a new trilogy codenamed Polaris (likely starting with The Witcher 4), a Witcher 1 remake, and Project Sirius, which would offer a multiplayer experience. From these games, Project Sirius was the one facing the hardest time. Back in March, it was announced that the studio would take it “in a different direction” that would be more aligned with the company, as Project Sirius was having its scope reevaluated, which led some gamers to fear that the whole project would be canned.
Now, a new official statement from CD Projekt Red states that Project Sirius has finally been given a new framework. The game, which is still going to be developed by a third party, the Boston-based The Molasses Flood studio, is changing directions, but will keep being developed, which is excellent news for fans of one of the best offline RPGs ever. The statement also touched on some financial data, explaining the project cost around 33.4 million Zloty ($8 million) in 2022, and that 2.7 million Zloty ($650,000) would be written off as part of the development costs for the first quarter of 2023.
That does not say much about what Project Sirius will actually be, though. For instance, it’s still unclear whether the game will retain its multiplayer elements or not, as the decision was not officially shared by the developers. Some time ago, rumors that Project Sirius would have a Japan-inspired setting surfaced. According to them, the game would be an open-world or semi-open-world title inspired by the Witcher: Ronin manga, visiting Eastern-inspired locations, which would be a huge change of pace. The Witcher 3 is a very popular game in Japan with over one million units sold there, so it makes sense.
These new Witcher projects will be a whole new challenge for CD Projekt Red. The first trilogy took almost a decade to be developed, and gamers have high hopes for these new titles. However, this new Witcher saga may struggle to forge its destiny, as it will need to simultaneously find new paths to explore and still be faithful to what fans are expecting after a popular trilogy.
Project Sirius is in development.
Source: CD Projekt Red