Few details about CD Projekt Red's Witcher franchise since the video game developer announced its host of new projects. That may have changed recently as an image and details from Project Sirius appear to have surfaced online, suggesting the next Witcher game might take Geralt of Rivia to medieval Japan.
A screenshot from 4Chan recently surfaced on Reddit, showing supposedly leaked artwork featuring Geralt of Rivia, armed with a katana and clothed in the garb of a samurai. Along with the Project Sirius title, the image is watermarked with "confidential," along with the name of The Molasses Flood's Lead Environment Artist, Chad King.
According to the details contained within the screenshot, Project Sirius is a one-shot "what if"-style story set in Edo Japan, drawing partly from the 2022 Dark Horse manga The Witcher: Ronin. According to the post, one of the aims of the video game is to "popularize The Witcher, CDPR brand in the east and attract new fans for the series." Neither Molasses Flood or its parent company, CD Projekt Red, have addressed the apparent leak or responded to speculation about a potential Japanese setting in Project Sirius.
What We Know About CDPR's Next Witcher Game
In addition, the project will be a single-player game, with earlier plans for a multiplayer component being scrapped. While it is worth reiterating the details of this leak have not been confirmed, a major change concerning the game was seemingly hinted at before it surfaced, with CDPR announcing in a report that Molasses Flood and CDPR are "formulating a new framework for this project." As part of that, the company is establishing an impairment allowance for Project Sirius, which had already incurred expenses of approximately $7.6 million over the last year.
CD Projekt Red previously teased gamers with a few vague details about what to expect from Project Sirius. Business development SVP Michał Nowakowski stated, "We want to reach to people that we were not necessarily efficiently reaching through the Witcher games that we've been making so far. So imagine people who maybe watched the TV show but are not necessarily into playing very dark-themed, hardcore RPG games. So this is more the kind of thinking behind that."
Project Sirius was one of two standalone Witcher projects announced in late-2022, alongside the first entry in a new Witcher trilogy. The other standalone project, Project Canis Majoris, was later revealed to be a remake of The Witcher game from 2007.