It’s official. Popular video game developer and publisher CD PROJEKT RED has confirmed that they are now working on a new installment of Witcher series video games. The company also confirmed the technology partnership with Epic Games to develop the new game based on Unreal Engine 5.
While CD PROJEKT RED has used its proprietary REDengine to develop popular games such as Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and Witcher 3, the new multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games enables the company to not only get the license for the new game engine but also to involve in the development of Unreal Engine 5 and also for future versions of the engine when relevant.
Paweł Zawodny, CTO of CD PROJEKT RED, 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, stated 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.”
In a separate tweet, CD PROJEKT RED also confirmed that the game will not be exclusive for a single storefront, indicating that the game may be available on multiple launchers.
We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.
— The Witcher (@witchergame) March 21, 2022
There isn’t any information yet on the details and release date of the game, except for a teaser image of what appears to be a medallion that is surrounded by snow, along with the phrase, “The Witcher”, “A new saga begins.” Now that we know the game is based on UE5, expect to see realistic graphics with ray tracing. And we are sure that many will be looking forward to playing the next version of Witcher.
