I love it when a vast RPG has a minigame that takes over my life. I played an extraordinary amount of Queen’s Blood in FF7 Rebirth at the start of this year, and sitting down to play poker in Red Dead Redemption 2 has always been an easy timesink. None of these compare to The Witcher 3’s Gwent, though. I can’t count the number of times I’ve stopped Geralt in his tracks just so I could try to win another card to bolster my own deck. Gwent is all I want in The Witcher 4, and it sounds like CD Projekt Red is fully aware of how popular it is.
With a big The Game Awards reveal, The Witcher 4 release date feels closer than ever. CD Projekt Red’s RPG is now well into development, alongside a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, and I can’t wait to hear more. Until then, CDPR has directly addressed whether or not Gwent will return in a new Easy Allies interview. It’s time to get practicing.
“We all love the game,” The Witcher 4 executive producer Gosia Mitręga says in the interview. “We always really carefully listen to the community […] but I don’t think anyone will be disappointed.”
“It’s a part of the experience,” game director Sebastian Kalemba adds. “So, absolutely. We also love Gwent.”
With CD Projekt Red ending full support for its standalone digital version of Gwent starting this year, you’d be forgiven for wondering what the card game’s future is in The Witcher 4. While we wait for the sequel, this separate version of the game isn’t gone forever, as Gwent’s final update officially puts control over it in the hands of players.
Kalemba has also previously said that The Witcher 4 will channel the “freedom” of Cyberpunk 2077, with CDPR taking what it learned from Night City and injecting it into the new fantasy saga. Kalemba says the player “has to be able to have freedom, to feel that they are free, starting with the character build.
“Our pressure point is immersion,” the developer continues. “It’s about being able to choose your own path. The Witcher will follow this structure: a lot of freedom, but there is a specific path to follow from a storytelling point of view.”
If you want to dive back into Geralt’s most recent adventure while waiting for Ciri’s solo outing, we’ve got all the best Witcher 3 mods you need. Otherwise, give the best Witcher 3 settings a look.
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