The Witcher Remake Is on Hold Until The Witcher 4 Lays the Groundwork, CD Projekt Red Says

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that the remake of the original The Witcher is on hold for now, with developer Fool's Theory tied up on other projects until The Witcher 4 is further along. The studio made the announcement in a statement to GameSpot.

Fool's Theory is currently focused on The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past expansion while a smaller portion of the team supports The Witcher 4 development. The remake itself is paused because it's being built directly on top of The Witcher 4's foundation — CDPR says the assets, tools, and pipelines from that project need to exist before remake development can run efficiently. "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," a CDPR rep told GameSpot. The upside is that Fool's Theory working on The Witcher 4 directly means the team will already know the new engine and workflows before they return to the remake.

The Witcher remake was announced back in 2022, and the team has been open about its ambitions: a full open-world redesign that strips out or rebuilds parts of the 2007 original that feel dated. CDPR has The Witcher 4 penciled in for 2028 and has outlined a plan to complete a new trilogy within six years of that game's launch — which puts the remake somewhere in a tight window between The Witcher 4 and 5, likely serving as a bridge release to keep fans occupied between mainline entries. Realistically, don't expect the remake before 2028 at the earliest.

CDPR is also ramping up hiring on Project Hadar, a brand-new IP currently in the prototyping phase, so the studio has plenty on its plate beyond the Witcher universe. For fans of the remake, the news isn't a cancellation — it's a delay with a logical explanation — but the wait just got a lot longer.