CD PROJEKT RED Prepares a new Witcher Game with Unreal Engine 5

[AleksandarK]

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:

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.

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[oxrufiioxo]

Pretty excited, hopefully the engine swap helps development. The downside is I'm guessing this is 4-5 years out.

 

[mak1skav]

A moment of silence for all the poor hyped victims that will pre-order it.

 

[dirtyferret]

The Witcher IV is the greatest game achievement mankind has ever made since the announcement of Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[Kohl Baas]

A moment of silence for all the poor hyped victims that will pre-order it.

Back to the roots. Kind of a redemption, I guess...

 

[ZeppMan217]

Surely it can't be worse than Cyberjunk.

 

[BArms]

If you're able to loot all items even if they're in corners or behind things it will be truly revolutionary!

 

[mechtech]

kinda cringing at the UE5. Witcher 3 had low mem use at 4k and ran decently, hopefully UE5 is better.

I'd say use the steam engine so I could get 120 fps @ 4k on my RX 480

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Kinda wishing for the headline where From Software announces they're using Unreal Engine for their next game but with absolutely no partnership besides because Steam's been working out just fine.

 

[Chrispy_]

Does this announcement mean that work has stopped on CP2077?

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.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

Nice. Sad to hear about Unreal Engine simply because I'd like them to stay away from Epic Games, but as long as they don't go exclusive to Epic and don't get woke with the storytelling, then I'll be happy to get my wallet out for more Witcher at either GOG or Steam.

 

[FierceRed]

Does this announcement mean that work has stopped on CP2077?

No.

Nice. Sad to hear about Unreal Engine simply because I'd like them to stay away from Epic Games, but as long as they don't go exclusive to Epic and don't get woke with the storytelling, then I'll be happy to get my wallet out for more Witcher at either GOG or Steam.

No reason to go exclusive when they have their own digi-distro store. Everything they make will always be on GOG.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

We saw that Cyberpunk was a bad release, it makes you wonder about the capabilities of REDengine. There are several reasons to switch to U5, mainly being DX12 features, and the fact that it is, in all ways, better than REDengine. You can see the proof with Cyperpunk 2077 having such a shit launch.

 

[chrcoluk]

Great news on the game, but seems unreal engine is too dominant now. Hope wont have streaming stutters.

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

We saw that Cyberpunk was a bad release, it makes you wonder about the capabilities of REDengine. There are several reasons to switch to U5, mainly being DX12 features, and the fact that it is, in all ways, better than REDengine. You can see the proof with Cyperpunk 2077 having such a shit launch.

Dx12 is has a lot of old baggage with it, surprised that their no looking into Vulkan.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Dx12 is has a lot of old baggage with it, surprised that their no looking into Vulkan.

I think they cleaned up (removed) a lot that backward compatibility with DX12 Ultimate. IDK old baggage vs new features, its a tossup, I doubt there would be any real problems.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Does this announcement mean that work has stopped on CP2077?

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.

Personally, I already wrote Cyberpunk 2077 off as an L, and I am honestly not really expecting anything to be done about it, really.

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

I... loathe this game. It's everything I wanted it not to be.

 

[AsRock]

Sad news, that they did not improve on the Redengine , only as of late the unreal engine been better for example Days Gone but would like to see them improve on the Redengine more.

I be waiting a long time after release that's for sure due to this.

 

[konga]

This is likely to be the first of several such news stories about studios with proprietary game engines switching to UE5, and it has little to do with graphical fidelity. At the risk of sounding too buzzwordy, UE5 genuinely brings a new paradigm to game development, making asset creation and level design worlds easier than it was previously. Or in other words, it will be dramatically less expensive and time consuming to develop a new game on UE5 than it was on RED Engine. AAA game development team sizes have been growing at an unsustainable rate, and many studios are going to be looking long and hard at UE5 and its labor-saving innovations. Its improved fidelity over other modern engines is just a bonus.

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.

 

[Yraggul666]

Not paying a cent for any game ever again, not until i can test it Jack Sparrow style; if it's what was advertised and i like it, i buy it, if not, buh bye.
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......

 

[FierceRed]

This is likely to be the first of several such news stories about studios with proprietary game engines switching to UE5, and it has little to do with graphical fidelity. At the risk of sounding too buzzwordy, UE5 genuinely brings a new paradigm to game development, making asset creation and level design worlds easier than it was previously. Or in other words, it will be dramatically less expensive and time consuming to develop a new game on UE5 than it was on RED Engine. AAA game development team sizes have been growing at an unsustainable rate, and many studios are going to be looking long and hard at UE5 and its labor-saving innovations. Its improved fidelity over other modern engines is just a bonus.

Concurrent to what you've said, IMHO there's very few places to go for achieving higher visual fidelity than we already have.

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.

 

[RadeonProVega]

I'm looking forward to their offline single player gwent game. Never been a fan of Witcher, but that's cool they're using unreal engine 5.

 

[Chrispy_]

I wonder if the switch to UE5 is because their getting hacked, ransomwared, blackmailed and then having all of their source code sold on the black market means that their engine is compromised for all future use.

 

[Prima.Vera]

There is too much hate here for CP2077, really. The game wasn't that bad, and had a good storyline. Also several modes to take on a mission. The NPCs are retarded but that's with every game.

 

[Minus Infinity]

There is too much hate here for CP2077, really. The game wasn't that bad, and had a good storyline. Also several modes to take on a mission. The NPCs are retarded but that's with every game.

Forums magnify the negatives 1000 fold. For every single negative nelly, 1000 players are having a good experience with CP2077. It was never poorly rated on PC and patching has greatly improved it.