CD Projekt Crimson introduced not too long ago that it’s growing The Witcher Remake, alongside the beginning of a model new saga for the collection too, which is able to begin with the tentatively titled The Witcher 4. Each of those video games are being developed in Unreal Engine 5, as CD Projekt steps away from its personal Crimson Engine and as a substitute goes together with Epic Video games’ extensively used know-how. That is going to be nice for each video games throughout the board.
The underside line is that this, CD Projekt Crimson clearly believes shifting the Unreal Engine 5 will result in higher video games and higher growth. CTO Paweł Zawodny mentioned earlier this yr “it was the shift in direction of open world assist that introduced Unreal Engine 5 to our consideration,” with artwork director Jakub Knapik including that “Unreal is utilized by quite a lot of groups already on the planet, quite a lot of views are projected into the design of the instruments.”
Unreal Engine 5 ought to make CDPR higher at what it already does, and the struggles with Cyberpunk 2077’s growth and preliminary launch (granted, this has been circled massively within the final two years) probably performed a component on this shift too.
Whereas The Witcher Remake isn’t being developed by CDPR, it’s being dealt with by fellow Polish studio Idiot’s Idea, which helped with the event of The Witcher 2 and three. CDPR says it’s “offering full inventive supervision” on the undertaking, so it’s not like The Witcher 4 and this remake will probably be utterly separate entities.
I can fairly simply see the transfer to Unreal Engine 5 serving to out each video games right here, particularly contemplating CDPR will probably be concerned considerably with the remake. Can I affirm the precise kind this potential assistance will take? Completely not, however my level is that I believe there might be some similarities between The Witcher 4 and The Witcher Remake, just because how one of many groups learns to make use of Unreal Engine 5 can solely assist the opposite.
How The Witcher Remake will reinvent and modernise the 2007 unique stays to be seen, nevertheless it’s not unrealistic to imagine that a few of how Idiot’s Idea modifications The Witcher might be built-in into The Witcher 4, and vice versa. Does this imply we’ll get them faster than we anticipate, or that each video games will probably be extremely comparable? I don’t know to be trustworthy, I’m simply to see how each video games being developed on the similar time in the identical engine influence the options, downside fixing, and total high quality of every recreation.
CDPR clearly trusts the know-how at play in Unreal Engine 5, a lot in order that it wish to synergise growth of the Witcher video games.
In actual fact, this stems to the Cyberpunk franchise as properly, and I believe it highlights how CDPR is determined to not have a launch state of affairs anyplace close to the catastrophe of Cyberpunk 2077. Whereas the Phantom Liberty enlargement remains to be utilizing the Crimson Engine, will probably be the final undertaking to take action with the 2077 sequel, codenamed Venture Orion, additionally shifting to Unreal Engine 5.
This massive-scale adoption of Unreal Engine 5 is unquestionably a pricey transfer, which additional cements how a lot CDPR trusts the tech and the way it can affect the video games the studio makes sooner or later.
I believe Zawodny’s feedback on Unreal Engine 5, and what it may particularly provide CDPR the varieties of open-world video games it makes, cements why that is such an essential transfer not only for the studio’s initiatives, however its total picture too. “This opens a brand new chapter for us the place we actually wish to see how our expertise in constructing open-world video games will get mixed with all of the engineering energy of Epic.”
No matter occurs to CD Projekt Crimson going ahead, I actually hope the transfer to Unreal Engine 5 pays off ultimately.