CD Projekt Red Reveals A New Witcher Game Made With Unreal Engine 5
The Witcher franchise is returning for another saga brimming with supernatural beasts and deep story-telling. CD Project Red has announced that its forthcoming next installment in The Witcher series of video games is "currently in development" and that it will kick off a new saga for the beloved franchise that now has its own critically-acclaimed Netflix series starring Henry Cavill. Whether that "new saga" leaves lead character Geralt of Rivia behind is not yet clear. The news of a franchise revival is exciting, considering the fact that the last entry in the series — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — came out all the way back in 2015. However, details about the upcoming project are still under the wraps.
So far, the studio has only released an artwork featuring the iconic wolf medallion with glowing red eyes that is half-buried in snow. Per The Witcher lore, these medallions are sensitive to magic and are given to young trainees after being forged at the witcher home-cum-stronghold of Kaer Morhen. The studio currently has no development time frame to share, and neither is there a release date on the table. But if the troubled launch of its most recent flagship product, Cyberpunk 2077, is anything to go by, the studio is going to take a healthy amount of time for its next outing in The Witcher series.
A new beginning on old foundations
The only crucial piece of information that the studio has shared is that the next game in its acclaimed franchise will be built using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5. Touted to deliver photorealistic imagery in games, Unreal Engine 5 is said to be a leap forward for visual geometry, lighting, and life-like animation. Arkane Studios' Redfall, Team Clout's ILL, Black Myth: Wukong, and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 are among the upcoming games that will rely on Unreal Engine 5 and the firepower of next-gen consoles to take game visuals to the next level. With The Witcher series jumping the Unreal Engine 5 bandwagon, we can expect some truly breathtaking visuals in the upcoming game.
We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.
— The Witcher (@witchergame) March 21, 2022
The studio is adopting Unreal Engine 5 as part of a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games, but that doesn't mean the upcoming title will be an Epic Games Store exclusive. The official Twitter handle for The Witcher games confirmed that the studio has no plans of keeping the game exclusive to a single storefront. Even though CD Projekt RED is abandoning the in-house REDengine for the fourth entry in The Witcher series, it will continue using the engine for developing the next Cyberpunk 2077 expansion. Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the biggest projects the studio ever worked on, but after a string of delays and a bug-ridden launch, the hype around the game withered considerably. The fourth outing in The Witcher series just might bring things back on track.