Great news for The Witcher fans: The fantasy series is getting a new game.
CD Projekt RED dropped the news on Monday, which seemingly caused the official Witcher website hosting the announcement to go down temporarily.
The untitled Witcher game promises to kick off a “new saga” in the series. For now, CD Projekt RED is remaining mum on details, but the teaser shows a silver medallion covered in snow. Does it belong to the main character and monster hunter Geralt, who normally wears a wolf medallion? Or is it from another witcher? We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, CD Project RED did say it’s tapping Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to develop the title. That news alone is surprising since CD Projekt RED usually uses its own REDengine technology to build its games.
According to CD Projekt RED, the decision to use Unreal Engine 5 actually represents a partnership with Epic Games, rather than a licensing deal. The Polish game studio is also going to contribute development to Unreal Engine 5, and potentially future generations of the engine.
“From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership,” said CD Projekt RED CTO Paweł Zawodny.
He added: “It is vital for CD Projekt RED to have the technical direction of our next game decided from the earliest possible phase as; in the past, we spent a lot of resources and energy to evolve and adapt REDengine with every subsequent game release. This cooperation is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools.”
The statement signals CD Projekt RED wants to avoid the pitfalls it faced with its last game, Cyberpunk 2077. The title was announced with high expectations, but the end product arrived filled with game-breaking bugs, leaving many consumers disappointed. Programmers on the game have since reportedly said Cyberpunk 2077 should have never been originally released back in December 2020, and pointed to a rushed development as a key problem.
The studio’s decision to shift to Unreal Engine 5 likely means CD Projekt RED can spend less time on developing the game engine, and instead focus on building a new Witcher title. Unreal Engine 5 launched last year, and it’s designed to offer photo-realistic environments in real-time.
CD Projekt RED added it’ll continue using the company’s REDengine, but for upcoming expansions to Cyberpunk 2077.