Have you seen the news? The fourth “Witcher” is going to break through the stratosphere in terms of costs — at least, according to an expert from Noble Securities. The analyst rolled out a forecast according to which CD Projekt Red can spend an insane $779 million on the game, which, to be honest, sounds fantastic compared to the studio’s previous releases.
In fact, this money — which is almost ten times the budget of the legendary third part ($81 million) and twice the cost of Cyberpunk 2077 ($400 million) — will be equally divided between code creation and aggressive marketing. Such a sharp rise in appetites is explained simply: the studio switched to Unreal Engine 5, abandoning its REDengine, expanded its staff to a large scale and took a swing at a project of unprecedented scale. The whole new saga, according to the same expert, may cost the Poles $ 890 million, while the second and third chapters of the new trilogy will be cheaper — the technology will already be tested at the start.
Budget comparison of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt RED studio has finally moved to the heavyweight league, where the price tag of development is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. To be honest, against the background of their past successes, current spending looks crazy. The legendary The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt once cost the Poles “only” $81 million — this amount then covered three years of sweat of 240 full-time developers, and the most powerful marketing of 40 global campaigns.
In short, times have changed. When Cyberpunk 2077 came on the scene, budgets generally skyrocketed — the main game and its PR spent from $316 to $400 million. It is also worth considering that, along with the patches and the Phantom Liberty addon, the final receipt, by the way, broke through the $450 million mark. Approximately 55% of these funds were consumed directly by work on the code and the world of Night City — the rest, in fact, went to advertising and overhead costs, which is logical with such a bloated staff.
| Aspect | The Witcher 3 (~$81M) | Cyberpunk 2077 (~$400M) |
|---|---|---|
| Development | ~$32–50M (core team) | ~$150–220M (≈55% of total budget) |
| Marketing | ~$35M (≈40 campaigns) | ~$150–200M |
| Total Cost Growth | 2015 benchmark | Multiple increase (≈5×) |
It’s interesting how CDPR scales its appetites: the jump from $81 million to ~$400 million clearly shows how much more expensive AAA hits have become due to the exploration of worlds and new technologies. The Witcher 3, let us remind you, paid off in a matter of days — Cyberpunk 2077, however, took longer to pave the way to profit through fixes. As a result, both projects cemented the studio’s status as a master of expensive open—world RPGs – powerful, you must agree.
The most unexpected thing lurked in the forecasts for May 2026 — they say that’s when CD Projekt Red will release a fresh paid add-on for The Witcher 3. And here, by the way, the most interesting thing begins: insiders are whispering that Ciri will become the main character of this DLC. It seems that this will be a powerful warm-up for the audience before the release of the main fourth part, which, we recall, was officially announced back in March 2022. The stakes themselves are as high as ever.
