The Witcher 4 Won’t Be Another Unreal Engine-Looking Game Promises CD Projekt RED
While Cyberpunk 2077 and past games from CD Projekt RED were powered by the studio’s in-house REDengine, the in-development The Witcher 4 will see the title running on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5.
Given how buggy Cyberpunk 2077 was when it was released, some might be happy that CDPR is switching from its own proprietary engine, to something more widely used by other studios. However, there are those who might be worried that the RPG is running on Unreal Engine 5, since it might make the game look similar to other titles running on the game engine.
This shouldn’t be a concern, according to CD Projekt RED.
CDPR Comments on The Witcher 4 Being Developed on Unreal Engine
Speaking to The Game Business, CD Projekt RED joint CEO Michał Nowakowski commented on the game’s switch from the REDengine to Unreal Engine, and how this was borne from the studio’s desire to release more games, and in turn, make the development more efficient, as each new game release would mean starting from scratch every time with the REDengine.
While there will be some birthing pains such as pipelines and tools that needed to be reworked and changed, the biggest threat for CDPR was whether using Unreal Engine might affect the game’s uniquess.
Nowakowski shares, “That was a big question we were asking ourselves, because pushing the envelope with how the games look, the cinematic feel of it all, is very, very important. And that was a big question mark when we were in the R&D phase over whether Unreal Engine 5 is going to be a good fit or not. We really asked ourselves all of these questions, and in some cases the answer was, ‘not yet.’
Nowakowski also said that The Witcher 4 won’t be another Unreal-looking game, and that they’ll be able to standout, stating, “But together with Epic, we can bring it to that point. I know when we made that switch, people were saying, ‘Oh, it’s going to be another Unreal-looking game.’ But we’re not going to be. We really are going to be able to differentiate ourselves. People are going to feel this is a CDPR game still, and the technology under the hood is actually going to be irrelevant from a pure fan perspective.
Based on what we’ve seen of The Witcher 4 so far, CDPR seems to be on the right track. Let’s hope they are also able to tackle Unreal Engine’s other technical issues with performance and being a memory hog.
The Witcher 4 is aiming for a 2028 release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. With this game engine move, it seems CDPR is also confident about releasing Witcher games faster, as the studio has said it is aiming to release three mainline Witcher games over a six-year period.
In other The Witcher news, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered upgrade is set to be released on September 29, and will feature console The Witcher 3 Remastered Can Run Up to 90 FPS on the PS5 Pro.
