New multiplayer The Witcher game details surface, but it might not be Project Sirius

It's a great time to be a fan of The Witcher. A decade after the immaculate Blood and Wine DLC dropped for The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red revealed a third expac, Songs of the Past, will be coming in 2027. Well, that's not all, as a new multiplayer game set in-universe is reportedly in development for PC and mobile.

The untitled The Witcher game is, according to a source close to MP1st, "a brand new […] free-to-play co-op action RPG." It will, apparently, be set in the year 1230, during Geralt's fledgling years as a monster hunter. However, you won't be playing as the White Wolf. Instead, you'll be able to create your own Witcher, with options supposedly including "gender and appearance customization."

When it comes to gameplay, you'll be taking on contracts to murder monsters in all the usual biomes you'd expect to find on the continent. "A skill-based system drives the combat mechanics," the report states, "letting you choose abilities from different Witcher schools, shaping your moveset by mastering Signs and brewing potions. This combat is said to reward player skill with well-timed blocks, dodges, parries, and executions."

This all raises a couple of big questions. Firstly, 'is this Project Sirius?' The series spin-off, when first revealed by CDPR in 2022, promised "both single-player and multiplayer gameplay." It was also hotly rumored to be coming to consoles. The project was rebooted in 2023, though, and then-developer The Molasses Flood was absorbed into CDPR last year, so a shift to mobile is certainly feasible. The studio did put out Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales and Gwent on the platform, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's flying solo again.

Alternatively, as the outlet suggests, we could be looking at CDPR's upcoming collaboration with Scopely, the monolith behind Monopoly Go!, which was revealed last year. In May's quarterly earnings report, co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said that, while "things are happening, […] it's definitely not a story for 2026." Considering next year marks the 20th anniversary of the first The Witcher game, it wouldn't surprise me if we get a bumper update then, as part of the celebrations.

Then there's the question of 'what style of ARPG are we looking at?' Especially if it's also being developed for mobile. I'm not exactly expecting cutting-edge graphical fidelity, or a 100GB+ behemoth, that's for sure. With a mobile touch screen being the limiter for controls, I'm assuming we're not looking at a load of keybinds. Attack, move, Sign, potion, dodge, and block commands are all it'd need.

My initial musing is that it could pursue a top-down, isometric approach similar to Diablo 4 and Path of Exile. However, these dungeon crawlers are all about running through and nuking everything in sight, rather than the measured combat described here. It'd have to be far less chaotic, and I've always found block/parry legibility to be best in 3D ARPGs like Sekiro. Modern mobile processors are far more powerful than we give them credit for, though, so I stand willing to be corrected.

Regardless of how the game materializes, be it Sirius or some other thing, hearing that more The Witcher could soon be on the way in any capacity is always music to my ears. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we learn more about this new project, should it manifest.