CD Projekt RED has officially confirmed the existence of a new title based on The Witcher. In an announcement that reveals no concrete information on the game itself, the focus is very much on technology. The firm’s in-house REDengine is being mothballed in favour of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. CDPR talks of a ‘multi-year strategic partnership… [covering] not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine where relevant’. In essence, CDPR has chosen to throw in its lot with Epic Games, even though core Unreal Engine 5 technologies are still at an early state, with the firm helping to shape the tech ‘with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences’. We’re at the embryonic stages of here as days as no development time frame or release dates are being shared at this time.
It’s a seismic shift for the Polish developer, which has shipped all of its titles from The Witcher 2 onwards on its own engine – but to be clear, while the REDengine’s days are numbered, it is still the core foundation of Cyberpunk 2077, so the upcoming expansion for that title will still be based on the same technology. Beyond that, however, it seems that Unreal Engine 5 is the future.
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