CDPR Switched to Unreal Engine 5 With The Witcher 4 to Focus on Making “Convincing and Immersive” Games, Not Building Technology
CD Projekt’s move from its own Red Engine to Unreal Engine 5 was a major change for the studio, but it wasn’t simply caused by the problems Cyberpunk 2077 faced at launch.
According to CDPR joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski, there was a much bigger reason behind the decision.
Speaking on a podcast with Deconstructor of Fun, Nowakowski explained that Red Engine itself was not the only reason behind those problems. Instead, CD Projekt came to a much bigger conclusion about what kind of company it wanted to be.
CD Projekt Explains the Real Reason It Switched to Unreal Engine 5
The studio’s main goal is to create “convincing and immersive” games with strong stories. It does not want to spend a large part of its time and resources acting like a technology company and building its own game engine.
Nowakowski said, “It was more the moment we got an early scoop of the Matrix demo that Epic made and we then asked ourselves is the UE5 ready to ship a game like we make… the answer is no not at the moment not at the entry level but if we form a relationship with Unreal and if we work on certain things which are specifically required to make games of the size and scope… it could actually work”
He revealed that an early look at Epic Games’ Matrix tech demo helped make that clear for the team. Seeing what the technology could do became an important moment in CD Projekt’s decision to change engines.
“Our goal was not really to create technology but to tell stories. But then we realized that in order to tell the stories the way we want to tell them, we do need to have the technology,” he added. “[By using Unreal Engine 5] we’re not going to be responsible for creating the technology from scratch but rather creating for that technology little things that actually make a big difference.”
Instead of continuing to build and maintain its own engine from scratch, CD Projekt eventually chose to work with Epic Games and use Unreal Engine 5.
In other words, working with an already established engine like Unreal Engine 5, rather than building its own engine from scratch, means CDPR can spend less time building and maintaining technology and more time and resources on creating high-quality games.
Looking ahead, CDPR is preparing for the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2 and The Witcher 4, both of which will use Unreal Engine 5. The developers have promised that The Witcher 4 won’t be just “another Unreal-looking” game and will keep the look and feel CDPR is known for.
