IGN reports that the the voice of Geralt of Rivia wants to return to his role as long as he can:

Geralt of Rivia Voice Actor Doug Cockle Eager to Return for The Witcher 4, Remake, and More

"I love it so much."

Geralt of Rivia voice actor Doug Cockle is eager to return for upcoming CD Projekt Red projects like The Witcher Remake, the next mainline game codenamed Polaris, and more.

Speaking to IGN, Cockle made clear his love for The Witcher by saying he wants to voice Geralt forever, even if Polaris is moving away from the character. "I would love to just keep voicing Geralt until I can no longer voice anymore," he said.

"It's just become such a part of me. I'm thrilled every time CD Projekt calls me up and says, 'Hey, Doug, are you available for such and such?' And my heart does a little flutter and leaps, and I go, 'Yes, of course I am,' because I love it so much."

"I would love to just keep voicing Geralt until I can no longer voice anymore."

Cockle made clear he doesn't know much of what's happening at CD Projekt Red — or Fool's Theory, the developer making The Witcher Remake — but he's only ever had a positive experience working on The Witcher so would love to return.

"I don't have as close a relationship with many other developers, and a lot of the other developers who I know fairly well are indie developers so they're much smaller in scale in terms of what they're doing and everything else," Cockle said.

"I have a lot of respect for CD Projekt Red. I don't work for them, I work with them. So I sit a little bit on the outside of the company itself. I'm like a satellite that kind of spins around the inner workings of the company, which I know nothing about, and every once in a while, they call me in and I come in and do a little thing, and then I go back into my orbit. But they're absolutely lovely."

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

PC Gamer reports that the new Witcher game is just the beginning of a new series:

CD Projekt is already planning multiple new Witcher games

The next game is in pre-production, and CD Projekt is mulling a whole new trilogy.

Earlier this year CD Projekt Red announced a yet-unnamed The Witcher 4 (opens in new tab), the beginning of a new "saga" for The Witcher—which now seems likely to be a trilogy. "We said that there will be a new saga. We have in mind more than one," CEO Adam Kiciński said today during a financial earnings call.

"The first saga was three games, so now we are thinking about more than one game," Kiciński said. "But we are in pre-production of the first game from the second Witcher saga." Kiciński reiterated that the current sequel is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, a big shift away from CD Projekt's own internal tools.

[...]

Thanks MAHak!

The new game in the Witcher series has officially entered pre-production:

CD PROJEKT looks back at the beginning of 2022

[...]

In March 2022 CD PROJEKT RED announced the start of a long-term strategic partnership with Epic Games, thanks to which future games will be based on Unreal Engine 5. The Studio also announced that it was working on further additions to The Witcher videogame series.

- We are very eager to revisit the universe which has shaped our history to such an extent. We have recently concluded the research phase for the first game in the new Witcher saga, which means that from now on further development expenditures will be capitalized on our balance sheet - adds Adam Kiciński.

[...]

PC Gamer spoke with CD Projekt and asked why "The Witcher 4" is using Unreal Engine 5.

It was a very big deal when CD Projekt finally confirmed in March that The Witcher 4 (opens in new tab) (not the official title, but what we're rolling with for now) is in development. Also unexpected was the news that it is not developing the game using a new iteration of its REDengine, but will instead use Unreal Engine 5. During today's State of Unreal (opens in new tab) event, members of the studio touched on why that change was made.

"There was one demo that happened last year, that was the medieval environment demo, where at one point there's a notice board that looks strangely familiar to things we've done in the past – that has even a sign that says 'monster slayer wanted'," Slama says in the video. "And I'm like, 'Hmm, are they trying to tell us, come over to Unreal Engine, look how great your games can look on there? Was that whole demo made with that nefarious purpose?' I don't know, but it definitely caught my eye."

That "monster slayer wanted" image is actually from a multi-part tutorial, which you can see below, on creating medieval environments in Unreal Engine 4. Engine specifics notwithstanding, it does seem like a clear call-out of The Witcher, a faux-medieval monster hunter who often picks up work from local notice boards.

Of course, catching someone's eye is a long way from convincing studio leadership to switch to a whole new engine. REDengine has impressive capabilities but building, maintaining, and upgrading it from game to game is a major drain on development resources. Shifting to Unreal Engine 5 enables CD Projekt to leave much of the engine-level development to Epic, allowing it to focus primarily on making an actual game.

[...]

CD Project Red has announced a new Witcher game, which we currently file under the title: The Witcher: A New Saga. There is almost no information about this game and we don't even know if it is an RPG.

New Witcher Saga Announced. 

CD PROJEKT RED Begins Development on Unreal Engine 5 as Part of a Strategic Partnership with Epic Games

CD PROJEKT RED today revealed that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development with Unreal Engine 5, kicking off a new saga for the franchise and a new technology partnership with Epic Games.

Today's announcement marks the first official confirmation of a new game in The Witcher series since the release of CD PROJEKT RED's previous single-player, AAA RPG in the franchise — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — which won a total of 250 Game of the Year awards and was later expanded upon with the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine add-ons. 

The teaser image for the new game features a medallion, accompanied by the phrase A New Saga Begins. Beyond this initial confirmation of a new saga in The Witcher franchise, no further details — such as a development time frame or release date — were provided. 

CD PROJEKT RED also announced that they will be moving to Unreal Engine 5 as part of the multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. Since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, released in 2011, CD PROJEKT RED has used their proprietary REDengine technology to build their games. This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. Developers from CD PROJEKT RED will collaborate with those from Epicwith the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences, beginning with the development of the next game in The Witcher franchise.

Speaking on the use of Unreal Engine 5 for this, and future games, CTO of CD PROJEKT RED, Paweł Zawodny stated:

"One of the core aspects of our internal RED 2.0 Transformation is a much stronger focus on technology, and our cooperation with Epic Games is based on this principle. From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership. It is vital for CD PROJEKT RED to have the technical direction of our next game decided from the earliest possible phase as; in the past, we spent a lot of resources and energy to evolve and adapt REDengine with every subsequent game release. This cooperation is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools. I can't wait for the great games we're going to create using Unreal Engine 5!" 

Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, remarked about the partnership:

"Epic has been building Unreal Engine 5 to enable teams to create dynamic open worlds at an unprecedented scale and level of fidelity. We are deeply honored by the opportunity to partner with CD PROJEKT RED to push the limits of interactive storytelling and gameplay together, and this effort will benefit the developer community for years to come."

Simultaneously with these announcements, CD PROJEKT RED also provided confirmation that REDengine, the technology which powers Cyberpunk 2077, is still being used for the development of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion.