It seems as though gamers excited to hop back into the shoes of a young Geralt of Rivia will have to wait a little longer than anticipated. According to recent comments from CD Projekt Red to Gamespot, the remake, announced in 2022, has taken a back seat, due to the development teams shifting focus to both The Witcher 4, and Songs of the Past, the latest expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

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. As we have previously announced, the development on The Witcher Remake has been temporarily integrated with The Witcher 4 due to production process dependencies. As The Witcher Remake will be built on the foundation laid by The Witcher 4, we need to have the necessary assets, tools, and pipelines ready for efficient development.

The comments were echoed by CDPR co-CEO, Michał Nowakowski, speaking to The Game Business, who explained that Fool's Theory and CDPR were waiting on the development of The Witcher 4 to progress, because technological aspects of The Witcher 1 were tied to the new game. We started a collaboration with Fool's Theory. They were supposed to work on The Witcher 1, but we realized that needed a bit more time because of certain technology dependencies with The Witcher 4.

Despite earlier rumors that The Witcher 4 would be targeting a 2027 release, CD Projekt Red announced that it would instead launch the next full-scale entry into the Witcher franchise in 2028, with the Michał Nowakowski hinting that the studio needed more time to get The Witcher 4 ready. The wording of comments about The Witcher 1 Remake doesn't preclude the game from launching ahead of Songs of the Past or The Witcher 4, but it seems as though the development resources currently tied up in Songs of the Past will need to be freed up before full-scale production can resume on The Witcher 1. As such, we can expect The Witcher 1 to launch much closer to 2028 at the earliest.