Exciting news coming in for fans of The Witcher games. CD Projekt RED has today announced that they are currently developing a brand new game as the next instalment of The Witcher. According to an official press release, the Polish studio has confirmed that a new Witcher saga is in the works, and development has begun in Unreal Engine 5. This will be as part of a longer strategic partnership with Epic Games.
This will be a new chapter for fans of The Witcher franchise. The last, and perhaps most beloved game in The Witcher series was 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game still firmly featuring in the backlog of many an RPG fan to this day.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won a total of 250 Game Of The Year Awards and is widely hailed by critics and fans alike as one of the great game masterpieces of all time. For many fans, it felt as if The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a natural ending of the franchise that probably wouldn’t be revisited. Today’s news changes that.
Perhaps most exciting is in the detail of the new Witcher game’s choice of game engine. CD Projekt RED will make use of Unreal Engine 5 and their own REDengine technology to develop the newest instalment of The Witcher saga, with CTO Pawel Zawodny explaining the details.
“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!”
Pawel Zawodny, CTO, CD Projekt Red
CDPR has also confirmed via Twitter that despite the new game being developed in partnership with Epic Games, there will be no issues around storefront exclusivity.
While today’s news can be taken as an official confirmation of a new chapter for The Witcher games, little else is known as yet. Aside from the teaser image (which depicts a snow-encrusted Cat medallion), the press release does not provide any further insight into the development window and certainly not an estimated release date. However, for fans of The Witcher, the news that a new game is in active development is sure to be an amazing surprise.