CD Projekt Red's Michał Nowakowski confirmed The Witcher 4 is targeting 2028, with 500+ developers on board, a window that collides with Sony's 2028 physical disc cutoff, while Songs of the Past gets its full reveal at gamescom.
The Witcher 4 Gets a 2028 Window as Witcher 3 DLC Songs of the Past Gets Full Reveal
The Witcher 4 Targets 2028 Target with 500+ Developers
The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release window, CD Projekt Red confirmed on August 24. The news came in a video posted to The Witcher's official X (formerly Twitter) account, inviting fans to the studio's Gamescom presence this week. The video's biggest headline is about The Witcher 4, the next mainline entry in the series.
First revealed at The Game Awards 2024, Joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski confirmed the game currently has more than 500 developers working on it, calling it CD Projekt Red's "biggest, boldest, and most ambitious game to date," built around a large open world, action-focused combat, and a story the studio hopes will stick with players long-term.
Despite that update, The Witcher 4 itself won't be shown at gamescom this year, and Nowakowski stopped short of giving an exact release date. What he did confirm, for the first time officially, is a target release window: 2028. It's a notable update given how little CD Projekt Red has said publicly about the game's timeline since its reveal, and it comes as the studio continues building the title on a custom version of Unreal Engine 5, having previously shown a tech demo in June 2025, representing how the game could run on a base PS5.
Songs of the Past Also Gets Its First Full Reveal at Gamescom
Nowakowski spent the earlier part of the video on news that's just as immediate: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past, the franchise's long-awaited third expansion, will get its first full showing during gamescom's Opening Night Live on August 25. Songs of the Past was only officially announced back in May, over a decade after The Witcher 3's original 2015 launch, and is being co-developed with Fool's Theory, a studio staffed by several Witcher 3 veterans. It's set to release in 2027 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, once again putting players back in the role of Geralt of Rivia rather than Ciri.
Beyond the Opening Night Live segment, Nowakowski said CD Projekt Red will run a dedicated booth in Hall 8 of Gamescom's venue, staffed specifically to show off Songs of the Past in more depth. He also confirmed daily REDstreams throughout the event, teasing that the studio "might even share a surprise or two" during those broadcasts.
A 2028 Window Lands Right in the Middle of Sony's Disc Controversy
However, the Witcher 4’s narrowed release window was met with mixed reception. The tension showed up almost immediately in the replies to the Witcher's official X (formerly Twitter) video. One reply asked point-blank whether a physical edition was even still happening. Another said the 2028 cutoff means they'll likely end up buying the game on PC instead of picking up a PS5 disc as originally planned, adding that the timing had soured them on Sony specifically.
That worry isn't coming out of nowhere. Sony has confirmed on their PlayStation Blog that they will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation releases starting in January 2028, a policy that's already drawn significant backlash from players who value physical ownership and resale. With The Witcher 4's exact release date still unannounced, a traditional disc release on PS5 may be uncertain. CD Projekt Red has yet to confirm or deny plans for a physical version.
Whether that matters much to CD Projekt Red's bottom line is a separate question. The studio's financial disclosures show how far the shift to digital has already gone. Cyberpunk 2077 sold roughly 95% digitally in 2024. The Witcher 3, which launched in 2015 with a near-even 51/49 physical-digital split, has skewed steadily more digital in the decade since.
Notably, on Switch 2, Cyberpunk 2077 sold at a 75/25 split favoring physical. Nowakowski has credited that reversal to the game shipping fully on cartridge rather than requiring a separate download.
CD Projekt Red has also leaned hard into premium physical releases before. Cyberpunk 2077's $249.99 Collector's Edition shipped with a steelbook, an art book, and a V statue. But Sony’s new direction may put the The Witcher 4 physical collector’s edition at risk of not being produced entirely.
Not all of the reaction was worried, though. A lot of the response was pure excitement: fans reacted positively to having both a Witcher 3 expansion and a Witcher 4 window locked in, with one commenter framing it as Witcher fans finally getting to feast, and another simply echoing Nowakowski's request to let the team take their time.
A smaller group of critical voices pushed back on the announcement itself, with at least one commenter accusing the studio's social accounts of blocking fans who push back in the replies, a friction that's likely to follow CD Projekt Red into gamescom's Opening Night Live on August 25, where all eyes will be on Songs of the Past and whatever surprises Nowakowski has planned for the daily REDstreams this week.
Sources:
The Witcher - Official X (Formerly Twitter) Announcement
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past Announced (CD Projekt)
The Witcher 4 - Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo
The Witcher 4 - Cinematic Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2024
CD Projekt Group Management Board Report on 2024 Activities
