Witcher developer looking to Elden Ring for open-world game inspiration

Miles Tost of CD Projekt Red has tweeted about how Elden Ring has him thinking about open-world games. Could he mean the next Witcher game?

Developer Miles Tost is a senior level designer and one of the masterminds behind CD Projekt Red games likeThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt andCyberpunk 2077. He’s also likely to be working on the next Witcher game.

Elden ring witcher

It looks like Tost has been playing a lot of Elden Ring, as a tweet from him mentions how playingFromSoftware’smasterpiece has made him consider new ideas.

More specifically, Tost has been pondering open-world games and what makes them special. His tweet reads:

Witcher 3 is like Elden Ring

“Since Elden Ring, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a good open world.

There’s so many takes on this, especially once you start looking outside the RPG genre (Outer Wilds, hello!) and it’s made me curious.”

Ciri in The Witcher 4

He then asked, “What do you fine folks actually seek in an open-world game?”

Since Elden Ring I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a good open world.There’s so many takes on this, especially once you start looking outside the RPG genre (Outer Wilds, hello!) and it’s made me curious:

Elden Ring Nightreign Spellcaster

What do you fine folks actually seek in an open world game? 👀

— Miles Tost (@tostspender)August 18, 2025

Elden Ring as inspiration for next Witcher game

While Tost also gives a shout-out to Obsidian’s The Outer Wilds, it sounds like Elden Ring’s take on the open-world genre has given the veteran developer some food for thought.

Elden Ring takes a bold approach to level design, forgoing traditional waypoints in favor of a system that trusts the player to carve their own path. Zelda Breath of the Wild offered a similar mechanic, but Elden Ring really took the baton and ran with it.

Tost also asked his followers what they look for in an open-world game, which has led some to suspect he’s considering fresh ideas for CD Projekt Red’snext Witcher title. However, Tost never mentioned The Witcher in his tweet.

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It will be interesting to see if the Witcher 4, or whatever it ends up being called borrows from Elden Ring. After all,Elden Ring borrowed heavily from The Witcher 3when crafting its own open-world.