Monday, March 21st 2022
CD PROJEKT RED Prepares a new Witcher Game with Unreal Engine 5
CD PROJEKT RED today revealed that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development with Unreal Engine 5, kicking off a new saga for the franchise and a new technology partnership with Epic Games.
Today's announcement marks the first official confirmation of a new game in The Witcher series since the release of CD PROJEKT RED's previous single-player, AAA RPG in the franchise—The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—which won a total of 250 Game of the Year awards and was later expanded upon with the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine add-ons.
The teaser image for the new game features a medallion, accompanied by the phrase A New Saga Begins. Beyond this initial confirmation of a new saga in The Witcher franchise, no further details—such as a development time frame or release date—were provided.
CD PROJEKT RED also announced that they will be moving to Unreal Engine 5 as part of the multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. Since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, released in 2011, CD PROJEKT RED has used their proprietary REDengine technology to build their games. This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. Developers from CD PROJEKT RED will collaborate with those from Epic with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences, beginning with the development of the next game in The Witcher franchise.
Speaking on the use of Unreal Engine 5 for this, and future games, CTO of CD PROJEKT RED, Paweł Zawodny stated:
Today's announcement marks the first official confirmation of a new game in The Witcher series since the release of CD PROJEKT RED's previous single-player, AAA RPG in the franchise—The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—which won a total of 250 Game of the Year awards and was later expanded upon with the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine add-ons.
CD PROJEKT RED also announced that they will be moving to Unreal Engine 5 as part of the multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. Since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, released in 2011, CD PROJEKT RED has used their proprietary REDengine technology to build their games. This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. Developers from CD PROJEKT RED will collaborate with those from Epic with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences, beginning with the development of the next game in The Witcher franchise.
Speaking on the use of Unreal Engine 5 for this, and future games, CTO of CD PROJEKT RED, Paweł Zawodny stated:
One of the core aspects of our internal RED 2.0 Transformation is a much stronger focus on technology, and our cooperation with Epic Games is based on this principle. From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership. 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. I can't wait for the great games we're going to create using Unreal Engine 5!Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, remarked about the partnership:
"Epic has been building Unreal Engine 5 to enable teams to create dynamic open worlds at an unprecedented scale and level of fidelity. We are deeply honored by the opportunity to partner with CD PROJEKT RED to push the limits of interactive storytelling and gameplay together, and this effort will benefit the developer community for years to come."Simultaneously with these announcements, CD PROJEKT RED also provided confirmation that REDengine, the technology which powers Cyberpunk 2077, is still being used for the development of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion.
42 Comments on CD PROJEKT RED Prepares a new Witcher Game with Unreal Engine 5
gameachievement mankind has ever made since the announcement of Cyberpunk 2077.I'd say use the steam engine so I could get 120 fps @ 4k on my RX 480 :)
I got about 3-4 hours into the campaign, just taking it slow and sightseeing, before deciding that it wasn't in a playable state yet and tons of content was missing still. AFAIK CDPR has patched out most of the bugs now but none of the content that was abandoned or cut short for the insanely-rushed launch hasn't been added back yet:
- Morgan Blackhand character and entire main quest line
- Life paths
- Hacking/Netrunning were supposed to be based on a more fleshed-out Netrunner card game mechanic, akin to Gwent in W3.
- Night City general NPC AI that was actually believable, not dumb scripted shit worse than what GTA3 delivered 20 years ago.
- Third person camera, or at least mirrors. What is the point of the character cosmetics and customisation if you never see it in game?
- Entire skill trees were pulled
- Your apartment was scaled back to almost zero functionality
- The entire monorail/subway/metro system is incomplete
- Street cred reputation system pulled
- Wall-running and all of the melee combat that was linked to it
- Missing areas and points of interest from the demo
- Areas in game that exist for no purpose and have no quests
- No access to Cyberspace
I know there's a DLC coming but if even a quarter of that makes it into CP2077 I'll be stunned.The life paths, improved AI, apartment and third person camera are things I considered basically non negotiable, and the monorail would be nice... but yeah, it's just a fluke, as much as some people love it... whether they truly do or they just bought into the hype wholesale and irrevocably so... not really my business I guess. Enjoy the game in my stead :cry:
I... loathe this game. It's everything I wanted it not to be.
I be waiting a long time after release that's for sure due to this.
After how much of a fiasco CP2077 was, I don't think most people will miss RED Engine. Every game launch with it has been a hot mess, but CP2077 was the hottest and highest profile mess in a very long time. It's only fitting that CD Projekt would jump ship to UE5. They were likely desperate to find an alternative, and UE5 sounds perfect for them.
CyberFlunk2077 is the first and last preorder i ever did/will ever do.
I've played CbPk for 350+ hours, know it pretty much by heart, i fire it up after every update to see what they effed up now;
each time i play the game, the untapped potential makes me want to kill people......
Lighting/ray-tracing is one of those areas and if the industry is going to get any core competencies at it, there's barely any reason to make something new until UE5 is out.
That it has the new photo-importing rendering just makes it better. Much like hollywood filming in different locales for visual storytelling, I can't wait to see what UE5 games will achieve in artistry.