CDPR | Aurich Lawson
The Witcher returns. No, there will be no new TV series, novel, virtual card game or other project related to the popular Polish fantasy series. Today, CD Projekt Red has confirmed that the tentpole video game series will continue with an all-new adventure game.
The news came in Monday via an image of the game series’ trademark medallion covered in snow, with glowing eyes peeking through the frost. The announcement contained a four-word tagline: “A new saga begins.”
“Decided from the earliest possible stage”
The teaser was quickly followed by an official CDPR press release, confirming that the game studio will use Unreal Engine 5 to develop the new game, as opposed to the internally developed REDengine used in previous versions. witcher games and 2020 Cyberpunk 2077† The press release says the company will continue to develop REDengine to support the continued CP77 expansion content, patches, and other updates.
CDPR seems excited to communicate to fans what UE5 adoption will bring to its next project:
It is vital for CDPR to get the technical direction of our next game decided from the earliest possible stage, as we have spent a lot of resources and energy in the past developing and adapting REDengine with each subsequent game release.
Post-mortem comments from CP77 developers claimed frustration and technical issues with REDengine were the cause of: the studio struggles to translate the original “bullshot” pitch into a finished product for retail. (Crunch apparently didn’t help.) Bugs, feature delays, and a unique PSN removal made things worse.
Unsurprisingly, CDPR didn’t provide a time estimate or target platforms for its next Witcher game on Monday, let alone a name for the title. (And we have to wonder if “new saga” suggests multiple upcoming games or some sort of games-as-a-service product.) CP77 was first announced in May 2012 before launching in an arguably incomplete state in December 2020.
CDPR’s Monday announcement points out the Polish developer is entering an unusual relationship with Epic Games, as it claims the deal will help CDPR developers “customize” Epic. [UE5] for open-world experiences.” That kind of unusual partnership could bring financial incentives to both companies, but neither Epic nor CDPR explained how this part of the announcement will pan out. UE5 is already off to a promising start as a bona fide video game engine, in part. proven by an incredible real-time open world Matrix experience playable on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
