What you need to know
- CD Projekt RED is officially working on the next Witcher game.
- The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, instead of CD Projekt RED's proprietary RedEngine.
- There's no release window or further details at this time.
- CD Projekt RED faced widespread criticism over the poor state of Cyberpunk 2077 at release.
CD Projekt RED announced on Monday that the team is officially working on a new Witcher game. The announcement consists of a single image: A Witcher medallion half-buried in snow, with the words "A new saga begins."
Most notably, the game won't be developed using CD Projekt RED's RedEngine, which powered prior games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. Instead, CD Projekt RED is opting to use Unreal Engine 5 for this new Witcher game, working closely with Epic Games in the process.
"Epic has been building Unreal Engine 5 to enable teams to create dynamic open worlds at an unprecedented scale and level of fidelity," said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. "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."
CD Projekt RED noted that the RedEngine will still be used in other projects, such as the upcoming expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was critically acclaimed, Cyberpunk 2077 was widely criticized at launch, with extremely poor performance and criticism of stereotypical depictions of various characters. Cyberpunk 2077 was recently relaunched for Xbox Series X|S and PS5 through a free upgrade patch.
A current-generation update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is also currently in development, though there's no release date as it stands right now.
