A New Witcher Game Has Started Development

Hark and heed! A new game in The Witcher series is in development.

A press release from series developer CD PROJEKT RED teases that “a new saga begins.” Whether that means fans will be playing as someone other than series protagonist Geralt of Rivia is unknown at this time.

Perhaps most striking within the announcement is the news that CD PROJEKT RED are abandoning their proprietary REDengine, which they have used since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings released in 2011. Instead, they are partnering with Epic Games to utilize the company’s Unreal Engine 5, as well as any potential future versions of Unreal.

CTO of CD PROJEKT RED Pawel Zawodny stated: “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 [with Epic Games] is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools.”

Part of the collaboration between the two teams includes trying to tailor the engine for open-world experiences, starting with the new title in the Witcher franchise. That said, CD PROJEKT RED’s most recent game, Cyberpunk 2077, will still have its expansions developed in REDengine.

Although it started life as a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher has grown into a massive multi-media franchise with three acclaimed videogames, two Netflix shows, and an animated Netflix film.