CD Projekt RED Announces The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Fans of The Witcher: it’s time to get excited. CD Projekt Red has just announced the third iteration of its popular RPG series based on the novels of Andrzej Sapkowski. It’s called Wild Hunt, will feature an open world, a non-linear storyline and aims to become the “crowning achievement” of the developer. To help whet your appetite, the company has released a quick and totally non-informative teaser trailer:

While the original games were masterpieces in their own right, CD Projekt Red has major ambitions for this third title. For starters, its game world is going to be 30x larger than the one in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and will be totally open-ended. No one would fault you if you thought this sounded similar to Skyrim, and the mere thought of such a game based on this excellent series definitely has my interest piqued to record levels.

From the press release:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the final episode of the award-winning RPG series and the last part of the legend of Geralt of Rivia. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the most robust and breathtaking game ever created by CD Projekt RED. Open-world, free-roaming exploration is an adventure in itself as the player will gallop through war-ravaged lands, sail misty waters and track down dangerous beasts for money. An improved combat system will allow players to feel like a real monster-hunter, a witcher who uses his superior senses and fighting skills to survive in a dark fantasy world–while he embarks on a quest to save his loved ones. The new core mechanics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt immerse the player in the experience completely, with no Quick Time Events, only intuitive RPG gameplay.

Some might take note of the “final episode” mentioned here, and it is indeed going to be the final The Witcher title from the company. The reason? Studio head Adam Badowski notes, “we believe that we should end the series on a high note“. It’s hard to fault with that reasoning.

The game is currently set to be released in 2014 with supported platforms beinging “PC and High-End Platforms”. Something tells me that this is going to be a showcase of PC capabilities.

To celebrate this announcement, the original two games are on sale at both Steam and GOG.com for the next 72 hours for 50% off. If you haven’t yet had a chance to try either of them and are an RPG fan, you’re doing yourself a disservice to keep holding off. Need more convincing? Check out Jamie’s in-depth look at the second game, Assassins of Kings.