CD Projekt Red has announced that a new The Witcher game is in development. Additionally, this new game will be making use of Unreal Engine 5.
The Witcher franchise is undeniably popular. It led to the creation of a pretty good Netflix show (which, in turn, inspired new DLC for The Witcher 3), a highly-successful Kickstarter for a board game, and numerous other spinoffs -- and now, a new game for the core The Witcher franchise is on the way, too.
New The Witcher Game Moves to Unreal Engine 5
CD Projekt Red made the announcement about a new The Witcher game earlier today. As one might expect, this quickly crashed its website -- something that surely frustrated the people who were anxious to read the latest news.
"We’re happy to announce that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development, kicking off a new saga for the franchise," read the announcement from CD Projekt Red (via @Wario64).
Surprisingly, CD Projekt Red has announced that it will not be using its REDengine to develop this game. Instead, it's going with the latest version of a gaming industry mainstay: Unreal Engine 5.
"This is an exciting moment as we’re moving from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5, beginning a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. It covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. We'll closely collaborate with Epic Games’ developers with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences."
It's not yet clear if the move to Unreal Engine 5 will be solely for this game or if it signals a permanent move away from CD Projekt Red's own game engine. CDPR will continue to use REDengine for development of Cyberpunk 2077.
WIll the New The Witcher Game Be an Epic Games Store Exclusive?
The use of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 does raise a concern for PC players -- will the new The Witcher game be an Epic Games Store exclusive? Fortunately, the answer to that question appears to be a resounding "no."
"We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront," read a tweet from the official The Witcher account (via Reddit).
Unfortunately, no additional details about the game are available at this time. We're sure to find out more about the next The Witcher game whenever CD Projekt Red is ready to tell us. For now, why not take this opportunity to replay The Witcher 3 for the tenth time?
