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The Witcher 4 has now been officially revealed, with an announcement trailer confirming that the game will focus on Ciri as the main protagonist. This latest look does give us an idea as to the overall darker vibe of this new game, though it doesn't contain any hints on a possible release window.

Ever since developer CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 4 and referred to the game with its codename of 'Polaris', fans have been studying the teaser image shared alongside the upcoming game's announcement. It depicts a Lynx medallion, and could point to a new Witcher school that'll feature in what is set to be the first in a new trilogy.

While we wait for further news on The Witcher 4, here's everything that's been revealed about the game so far. As more details are shared by the developer, you'll find this page updated - we're as excited as you are so can't wait to get more details.

• What is it? The next mainline game in The Witcher series
• When can I play it? TBC
• What can I play it on? TBC
• Who is making it? CD Projekt Red

There are few details available about The Witcher 4. The announcement official blog post only confirms it's in development and that it's being built in Unreal Engine 5. We do now have a trailer, which confirms Ciri as the protagonist. Even so, aside from an admittedly gorgeous cinematic sequence, the trailer holds few concrete details related to the story.

Unfortunately, you're probably not playing The Witcher 4 until 2027 at the earliest, according to CD Projekt's latest financial update. Hopefully it'll be well worth the wait.

Over the years, CD Projekt Red has said plenty about what a future Witcher game would involve:

"The first three 'Witchers' were by definition a trilogy, so we simply could not name the next game 'The Witcher 4'," Kiciński said in an interview. "This does not mean, of course, that we will leave the world of The Witcher."

It would appear that the team has since had a change of heart in this regard, with the game having been officially revealed as The Witcher 4. It's possible that this could be a placeholder name, but seeing as we're following an older Ciri, it does seem to follow The Witcher 3.

At the end of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, monster hunter Geralt was alive and well. Well, he was alive, at least. But his story arc had ended, the Wild Hunt was over. That doesn't mean he won't return in this new Witcher game, though we do now know that he won't be the main character.

The developer said as much back in 2013: "We are not killing the world and walking away from it, but we will definitely want to make this game the finale in a big way," executive producer John Mamais told Polygon. "We might even include Geralt in later games potentially. We just need to talk about it and figure out what we're going to do next."

In 2015, speaking to IGN, Senior Writer Jakub Szamałek confirmed that the studio felt that The Witcher 3 was a natural endpoint for Geralt: "[he] has had such an amazing adventure, and his saga is already so long and complex that this seemed like a good point to think about an appropriate finale for the story.”

The confirmation that the medallion shown in the game's announcement picture is a lynx certainly suggests that the game will take things in a new direction. Potentially, that introduces an entirely new Witcher school.

The author of the Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, signed a new deal with the company to "further solidify their relationship". So. the studio is free to pull from any one of his short stories or novels. (If you want to get caught up, here's how to read The Witcher books in order.)

The Witcher 4 was fully revealed during The Game Awards 2024. The cinematic trailer, which can be viewed above, shows a young girl being prepared for sacrifice to a monster. Ciri intervenes, following the young girl and facing off against the creature. It's clear that Ciri is early on in her Witcher journey, but manages to best the monster in combat, making use of some new abilities.

So far, we've only had one trailer for The Witcher 4. Keep an eye on the official The Witcher YouTube channel for new trailers, or find them in this section once they are released.

This is a relatively massive factor that's confirmed for The Witcher 4, and one we're certainly excited about. Back in the Spring of 2023, the development team confirmed that The Witcher 4 would be built on Unreal Engine 5 - instead of the studio's own engine, REDengine.

The latter was used on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 so has its merits, but, in brief, moving to Unreal Engine 5 means the studio has more access to wider features, solutions, and tools that can make environments more detailed, more realistic, and have a great sense of overall visual fidelity than ever before.

As a note, this does mark the beginning of a partnership with Epic but does not mean the game will be an Epic Game Store exclusive. This partnership lead to a technical demo reveal for The Witcher 4, showing off an early technical build of the game running on a base PS5 at 60fps (June 3, 2025). You can check out the video below:

Ciri will be the main character in The Witcher 4. This was confirmed following the official reveal trailer that aired at the end of The Game Awards 2024.

CD Projekt RED is yet to confirm The Witcher 4 platforms. Given that there's no release window, it's possible that we could be waiting until next-gen for it to launch. The Witcher 3 originally launched for PS4, Xbox One and PC, so we're expecting The Witcher 4 to be multi-platform as well, at least until the developers reveal otherwise.

While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its two expansions rounded off Geralt's trilogy incredibly well, there has been a constant desire from fans to know whether Geralt will be in The Witcher 4.

Thanks to recent comments from Geralt's voice actor, it does seem that the character will feature in The Witcher 4, but won't be the protagonist. Spotted by VGC, Geralt's voice actor, Doug Cockle, spoke as a guest on a YouTube channel known as Fall Damage. During the spot, he revealed some rather interesting tidbits about the upcoming game.

"What we know is that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don't know how much," Cockle said during the interview. "The game won't focus on Geralt - it's not about him this time. We don't know who it's about, I'm excited to find out, I wanna know!"

Of course, we now know that The Witcher 4 will focus on Ciri, though hopefully we'll see Geralt in some form or another.

Eagle-eared fans were quick to notice that Ciri sounds very different in the recent The Witcher 4 cinematic trailer, which debuted at The Game Awards 2024 last week. This led many to speculate online that the character has been recast.Now we know that this is definitely the case as, in a new statement given to gaming blog The Gamer, developer CD Projekt Red confirmed that Irish actor “Ciara Berkeley was cast as Ciri for The Witcher 4 Cinematic Reveal Trailer.”

Geralt voice actor says CD Projekt Red's decision to make Ciri the star of The Witcher 4 is 'really exciting'
Doug Cockle, the voice behind Geralt in the first three The Witcher games, has shared his enthusiasm for the switch to Ciri, saying there are "all kinds of reasons" that make the choice exciting, mainly for how her role in the books is portrayed.

The Witcher 4 officially announced at The Game Awards 2024
In a surprise turn of events, CD Projekt Red has unveiled the first official look at The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards 2024, and yes, Ciri is the playable protagonist.

CD Projekt Red announces The Witcher 4 has now entered "full-scale production"
CD Projekt Red has provided an update on the development of The Witcher 4, stating that the upcoming game is now in "full production".

The Witcher 4 will have a focus on freedom
Sebastien Kalemba, game director at CDPR, was speaking at the very end of 2023 about creating new takes on RPG gameplay and features for The Witcher 4. The intent is to push the boundaries of RPG games and there's a desire to "tell something more intense, with also more intense gameplay."

A huge chunk of CD Projekt Red's workforce is now working on The Witcher 4
At the end of November 2023, CDPR revealed via an earnings report that the production team working on The Witcher 4 had grown to around 330 people actively working on the game. This number is set to grow to over 400 by mid-2024 as production gathers real steam. As first reported at the time of this news, 330 represents just under half of CDPR's development staff.

CDPR is already running internal demos of The Witcher 4 on consoles
Learning its lesson from Cyberpunk 2077, the devs at CDPR are already going to great lengths to test their next project - and do so from the early stages. As reported by our sister site GamesRadar+, in an interview with Inven Global, CD Projeckt Red engineering director Colin Walder has confirmed that, learning from Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch on consoles in 2020, "For our next project, Polaris, we're already running our demos and internal reviews on the console from the very beginning." This means that The Witcher 4 is already being tested on consoles to ensure that when the day comes, it'll have a better chance at sticking its landing.

The Witcher 4 has its Game Director
Sebastian Kalemba, the former Lead Animator on The Witcher 3, has been announced as the Game Director for The Witcher 4. They announced this on Twitter, stating that they aim to 'raise the bar.'

Polaris, and a brand new trilogy
In early October 2022, CD Projekt RED announced a bunch of new titles via Twitter, including a new The Witcher trilogy. Polaris (what we've been calling The Witcher 4) will kick off the new saga, which will then play out over 6 years from the first release. This is obviously a huge undertaking, so we'll have to wait and see whether it pays off.

The Witcher 4 teaser image sparks many theories
When The Witcher 4 was first announced it used the image we have as our header here - that of a partially snow-covered Witcher medallion - and it sparked much debate about which school it was, and whether that gave anything away. As reported by our brethren at GamesRadar+ at the time, the medallion was initially thought to be of the School of the Cat - which would imply a connection to Ciri as she came into possession of one after seizing it from Leo Bonhart. However, this was then debunked on Twitter when community director Marcin Momot reacted positively to a fan asking whether it was actually the medallion from the School of the Lynx.

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• Spider-Man: Brand New Day will reportedly start filming in August
• Tom Holland's next outing as the famous webslinger will initially be shot in Scotland
• The Marvel Phase 6 movie is currently due to be released in July 2026

The production wheels on Spider-Man: Brand New Day are finally ready to turn after reports emerged it'll start filming in August.

Cameras will begin rolling on Tom Holland's next big-screen outing as the famous Marvel superhero next month, according to two Scottish outlets. The Glasgow Times and Herald Scotland have indicated principal photography will get underway on August 2, with Glasgow acting as a cost-saving stand-in for New York City.

Both newspapers have reported that numerous roads will be inaccessible to vehicles (except for emergency services) and the public from July 28 until August 13. Production designers and set dressers will move in to alter the appearance of certain streets to give them an American feel before the Marvel Phase 6 movie's first scenes are filmed between August 3 and 8.

There's no word on which actors will be present on set to start shooting Spider-Man 4, but I'm hoping that some of my biggest questions about the forthcoming flick will be answered once filming begins.

The main query I have is who's actually been cast in Spider-Man's latest adventure.

So far, Holland is the only actor confirmed to appear. He'll reprise his role as Peter Parker and his superhuman alter-ego, but the rest of the movie's cast remains a mystery.

Well, on the official confirmation front, anyway. There have been plenty of rumors, plus unofficial actor confirmations via the trades, about who'll show up in one of 2026's most anticipated new movies.

For example, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon have been linked with roles in Brand New Day. The pair last appeared in a Marvel film in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, but they also played MJ and Ned Leeds in Holland's two other solo movies. Considering how the aforementioned flick ended, it's unlikely they'll have substantial roles this time around.

Elsewhere, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink is reportedly set to co-star alongside Holland in Spider-Man 4. There's no word on who she might portray, but Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans have their theories.

There are numerous other new and established MCU characters who could show up. Brand New Day may bring John Bernthal's Frank Castle/The Punisher to the silver screen for the first time. Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner/The Hulk has also been tapped to appear in Spider-Man 4 if online gossip columns are to be believed. There's speculation that three big Spider-Man villains could pop up in Brand New Day, too.

Away from its potential castings, I also want to know if it'll be another multiversal film or not. I'd prefer Brand New Day to be more of a street-level story for the wallcrawler, but considering No Way Home made over $1 billion globally thanks to its multiversal Spider-Man team-up, I wouldn't be surprised if some parallel universe shenanigans have been woven into its plot.

I don't expect Spider-Man 4's first few days of filming to confirm or deny any or all of these rumors. Nevertheless, whether some of them are officially addressed by Marvel and/or Sony, or we discover more details by way of any leaks that emerge from its set, I'm hoping we learn something new about its cast and plot ahead of Spider-Man 4's July 31, 2026 launch date.

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• ExpressVPN has been hit by a class action lawsuit over alleged "illegal" auto-renewal fees
• A Californian customer accused ExpressVPN of automatically charging him a monthly fee without his consent
• Most popular VPN providers employ a similar auto-renewal system – a practice lawyers allege to go against California's consumer law

A customer in the US has sued VPN provider ExpressVPN over allegedly "illegal" auto-renewal fees.

Plaintiff Timothy Millar filed a class action lawsuit against ExpressVPN in California's Court on June 13, 2025, accusing the company of automatically charging him a monthly fee without his consent. Millar seeks to represent himself and all other California consumers who have been charged illegal auto-renewal fees at least once.

Despite a few exceptions, almost all the best VPNs on the market have a similar auto-renewal system in place to handle user subscriptions. Another provider, NordVPN, is facing a similar legal case in the US, as a law firm has already brought lawsuits on behalf of four plaintiffs so far.

As claimed by the lawsuit, Millar bought one month of the virtual private network (VPN) software in September 2022, thinking he was making a one-time purchase.

Yet, after his monthly plan expired, "Unbeknownst to him and without his consent, ExpressVPN enrolled him in an automatically renewing monthly plan," reads the suit, alleging that "that charge was illegal and should be refunded."

According to Miller's lawyers, such behavior is in clear contrast with the provider's obligations under California's Automatic Renewal Law (ARL). The law, in fact, requires companies adopting auto-renewal payment systems to provide "clear and conspicuous" disclosures about the auto-renewal plan and obtain "affirmative consent" to enroll consumers. Something that – the lawsuit claims – ExpressVPN failed to do "in nearly every way."

Furthermore, ExpressVPN is accused of violating the False Advertising Law by disseminating misleading advertisements about the automatically renewing nature of its plans.

Miller is now demanding a jury trial and monetary damages for himself and the proposed class.

TechRadar approached ExpressVPN for comments, and a company spokesperson shared this written statement: "We are aware of the filing in relation to a subscription from several years ago and intend to defend it. Unfortunately, we cannot comment on the specific allegations made in this complaint.

"ExpressVPN has always prioritized transparency and giving users clear information about pricing, billing, and auto-renewal – this information is clear and highly visible at each step of the checkout process.

"As a cybersecurity company, providing uninterrupted protection is important to our customers. This subscription model ensures that customers get the protection they need, without fail, on their devices. Customers can switch auto-renew off anytime via their account dashboards or by contacting support.

"We remain focused on delivering value to our users; ensuring they retain control over their digital privacy."

As mentioned earlier, NordVPN is also facing a lawsuit over alleged "illegal and deceptive" auto-renewal practices.

The Wittels McInturff Palikovic law firm has already presented legal complaints on behalf of four former NordVPN customers since April 2024 – and urges all NordVPN users who were charged for a subscription they did not want to come forward.

The same law firm has previously opened investigations into auto-enrollment practices against ExpressVPN, too, alongside Proton VPN and Private Internet Access (PIA). Yet, lawyers filed no lawsuit against these providers.

While it is still early to know if these ongoing class actions will change how VPN providers handle user subscriptions once and for all, there are a few exceptions on the market already that you can opt for instead of getting locked into an auto-renewal plan. Mullvad VPN, which axed all recurring subscriptions in 2022 in the name of users' privacy, is one of them.

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