CD Projekt Red has dropped some rather big news revealing that a new game in The Witcher series is in development, and it will be using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the company’s own REDengine. Thankfully this move does not mean exclusivity.
Unreal Engine is, of course, owned by Epic Games and it’s probably what most people associated with it outside of Fortnite.
While using the engine in no way signifies that a game will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store, it still got people worried as any mention of Epic usually does.
Thankfully, on Twitter by way of the official account for the game series, it’s been confirmed that this will not be the case:
We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.
— The Witcher (@witchergame) March 21, 2022
At this point it’s worth mentioning that this new and unnamed Witcher game is still very early in development and its announcement comes with no information about a release window, release date or any other details.
All we really have right now is a teaser image of a Witcher medallion in some snow (see below) and the news about the move to Unreal Engine.
“This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. Developers from CD PROJEKT RED will collaborate with those from Epic with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences, beginning with the development of the next game in The Witcher franchise,” a press release we received reads.
This close partnership which doesn’t just see one company licencing software to another is mirrored by CTO of CD PROJEKT RED, Paweł Zawodny.
“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!” the CTO says.
Again we’re happy to get clarification about the lack of exclusivity when it seems the two companies are working so closely.
Cyberpunk 2077 is based on REDengine and further releases for it – an expansion is mentioned in the press release – will continue to use it.
