Game developer CD Projekt Red officially declares that "this is the end," when it comes to the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Blood and Wine expansion pack.

According to an interview between CD Projekt Red's co-founder Marcin Iwinski and the press outlet Eurogamer, once The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's last expansion, Blood and Wine, launches at the end of this month, the studio does not have another Witcher release in any stage of development, nor does it have one planned at all. Although the game's director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has previously remarked that he would love to do more games related to the franchise in the future, considering Iwinski's statements on the issue, it may be quite a while before a new title in the series gets green-lit, if one ever does.

With The Witcher 3 having released a year ago yesterday, the action-RPG has gone on to a remarkable amount of success, so some gamers might be perplexed as to why CD Projekt Red would decide to take a break from the franchise, or halt the series entirely. After all, not only did the studio's revenue from the last financial quarter show that The Witcher 3 made the company a lot of money, but also the title was a fan and critical darling.

Although Iwinski has suggested that Blood and Wine is the final chapter for The Witcher in its entirety, gaming fans can hold out a small amount of hope for another installment in the series, as CD Projekt Red's co-founder is not one to rule anything out. When asked if the studio would leave the franchise completely, or ever give it another go, Iwinski said:

"We honestly don't know. We don't have anything planned as of now to be honest on the next Witcher. As we said before, never say never [but] right now it's really Blood and Wine. This is the end. Blood and Wine is [the] closing and there won't be any Witcher any time soon - if there ever will be one. And I would really like to see how people feel about it, if they will enjoy it."

While The Witcher 3 might definitively be the end of any more adventures from Geralt of Rivia or his cohorts, CD Projekt Red is moving forward with plenty of interesting undertakings. For instance, the studio has promised that it will release a new game by the end of this year, it plans on releasing the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 sometime after 2017, and it has another unknown triple-A RPG set to be available anywhere between 2017 and 2021.

After making three incredibly rich Witcher games, CD Projekt Red could have taken the predictable route and churned out even more releases for the series. Of course, that wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing. As a matter of fact, most folks wouldn't have blamed them for doing so at all. However, the studio is making the right choice by focusing on new projects, which will not only result in the developer avoiding its artistic sensibilities becoming stagnant, but also provide fans with refreshing experiences in the long run.

What do you think about CD Projekt Red moving away from The Witcher series altogether? Do you want more titles from the franchise, or do you believe it's best for the studio to test the waters and try something different? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is out now and is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while its Blood and Wine expansion is set to release on May 31, 2016.

Source: Eurogamer