The big picture: CD Projekt Red is working on a new entry in the popular Witcher franchise. Perhaps more importantly, CDPR revealed the game – and future titles – will be built using Epic’s Unreal Engine 5. With any luck, this will help expedite the development process as previous titles created using CDPR’s proprietary engine have been slow in the making.
The confirmation came on day one of the Game Developers Conference. The Polish video game company said the new title would be developed using Unreal Engine 5 rather than its in-house engine, sparking a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games.
CD Projekt Red said the deal with Epic not only covers licensing, but technical development of UE5. In other words, it sounds like CD Projekt Red is going to help Epic develop Unreal Engine 5 for use in open-world experiences.
The last game in the series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, launched in 2015.
Worth noting is the fact that CDPR won’t make the new Witcher game exclusive to one storefront. What’s more, they are still using the RedEngine for the development of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion.
CDPR said it had no further details to share regarding the new game.
Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said they are deeply honored to partner with CDPR to push the limits of interactive storytelling and gameplay. “This effort will benefit the developer community for years to come,” he added.
Image credit Kacper Pempel, Reuters