WARSAW, Jan 22 Reuters Polish video game maker CD Projekt aims to start the production phase of the next game in its blockbuster Witcher series this year, the company39;s new joint CEO Adam Badowski told Reuters.

We39;d like to have around 400 people working on the project by the middle of the year, Badowski said.

Badowski, a company veteran, took the helm at CD Projekt along with Michal Nowakowski at the start of the year.

The project, called Polaris, is a new trilogy expanding the universe of the Witcher medieval fantasy franchise, which has sold over 75 million copies since the first game was released in 2007.

CD Projekt did not give a premiere date for the first game in the project, but analysts expect it to debut in 2026 or 2027.

That leaves the company without major game release in the next couple of years.

After a bugridden launch of another game Cyberpunk 2077 in late 2020, CD Projekt has been focused on transforming its studio. It has announced plans for several new games and said in October that Cyberpunk39;s sales had exceeded 25 million copies.

A sequel to Cyberpunk, codenamed Orion, is in the conceptual phase, Badowski said. CD Projekt expects to have about 80 people working on the project by the end of the year.

Nowakowski added the company was considering including multiplayer elements, but would not discuss details.

He said wage pressures had eased and the company expected hiring in its Polish studios to be rather low, but it would continue…