The Witcher traces its origin to a Polish novel series but has grown into a franchise spanning multiple video games and even a Netflix series. The latest full video game in the Witcher franchise was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that was released back in 2015 by CD Projekt Red, and crossed over 28 million units in sales. Now, CD Projekt Red is bringing over the Witcher franchise to Android and iOS with The Witcher: Monster Slayer, a game that infuses the Witcher IP into a Pokémon GO-style AR game.

The Witcher: Monster Slayer will purportedly let you slip into the shoes of Geralt of Rivia and slay the monsters hiding around them. Think of it like Witcher GO -- a Pokémon GO-style geolocation-based Augmented Reality game, infused with the intellectual property of the Witcher franchise and gameplay adapted for this combination. We already have a precedent in the form of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite from Niantic themselves, so this new game does come with its own promise.

If previous AR games are any yardsticks, The Witcher: Monster Slayer will likely adopt a free-to-play model with microtransactions, allowing players to explore the real world to discover monsters and fight them. We can also expect location geography and prevailing weather conditions to alter some aspects of the gameplay. The gameplay demo trailer showcases the player walking around on a map with monsters popping up in the vicinity (where have we seen this before? Hmmm....), and then needing to use the sword and other Witcher combat tactics such as magical signs, oils and craft bombs to defeat them. Defeating them will you to collect their trophies, presumably giving you bonuses like they do in the Witcher main games. Quests are also visible in the map when you activate your Witcher Senses, adding an investigative angle to the game.

While not explicitly confirmed by CD Projekt Red or Spokko, we suspect that The Witcher: Monster Slayer could be making use of the Niantic Real World Platform AR engine, which could allow the game to feature mechanics like depth detection and real-time object detection for rendering the monsters in the AR space. Considering the fact that Pokémon GO generated $8.9 million in a single day thanks to its annual Go Fest event in July 2020, there's certainly a lot of incentive for everyone to be trying their hands at mixing successful franchises with AR.

The Witcher: Monster Slayer will be coming to both, Android and iOS. No ETA has been provided by the game publishers.