As spotted by user CM_Escape on the Witcher subreddit, CD Projekt knows what we want and is gonna give it to us: The Gwent minigame will be returning in The Witcher 4, with the card game also presumably including an open world action-RPG to go along with it.
The news came from an Easy Allies interview with Witcher 4 game director Sebastian Kalemba and executive producer Gosia Mitręga. In response to a question about Gwent, the developers weren't ready to comment on specifics at this early stage of production, but it sure sounds like Gwent is back on the menu, baby.
"We really love the game, and we also really carefully, always listen to the community—which we love, and it's an amazing one," said Mitręga, "But I don't think anyone will be disappointed." Kalemba added that "it's a part of the experience, absolutely. We also love Gwent."
I'm super stoked to see where CDPR will take the GOAT videogame minigame in The Witcher 4—Gwent only got better in The Witcher 3's expansions, with the Skellige deck and tournament being a real highlight of Blood and Wine. I'm also curious to see what kinds of lessons CDPR takes from standalone Gwent.
The multiplayer card game never hooked me the same way, with the necessary changes to balance and complexity for sustained competitive play scaring away this single player RPG-liker. I've always meant to give the single-player standalones Thronebreaker and Rogue Mage a shot, though. Continued development for multiplayer Gwent ended this year, but CDPR has recently released a physical deck based on the digital card game. There's a ton of different cool things CDPR could do with Gwent in The Witcher 4, but I know my greatest wish: Geralt himself as the final boss of the Gwent quest, showing up like Red at the end of Pokémon Gold/Silver with a beast deck to show Ciri the heart of the cards.
