The Witcher – How Much Is Too Much?

With CD Projekt now looking to release five new The Witcher games in the next six years, you might be wondering how this can possibly turn out as anything other than a complete disaster. And if that’s the case, you should check out this recent PC Gamer article where a couple of editors share their thoughts on this announcement and throw some ideas around for where the Polish company could go with these new projects.

Here’s an excerpt to get you started:

Are back-to-back-to-back Witcher RPGs going to feel samey?

Wes: This is the bigger concern for me. I’ve played all three Witcher RPGs and enjoyed them all, but they each have a very strong, very different identity. If CD Projekt is making three more in rapid succession, I imagine the necessary reuse of assets and design learnings will make them much more similar. Maybe the developers end up overcoming that through the sheer quality of writing and quest design—that’d be amazing. But assuming they’re all open world RPGs following the same characters—which seems likely if they’re planning out a distinct trilogy—I have trouble imagining them feeling as distinct as the first three Witchers, or improving as dramatically between games.

Announcing three games from the jump just strikes me as a business decision, not one driven by game developers with so many plans and ambitions that a single game just wouldn’t cut it. But hey, if they do aspire to make something like the Mass Effect trilogy with story decisions that carry over between games, I’m curious to see how it goes.