CD Projekt Red announces a new Witcher game is in development

CD Projekt Red has announced that it’s working on a brand-new Witcher game, which will “kick off a new saga for the franchise,” and the first new mainstream title in the series since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released all the way back in 2015.

The biggest news, however, is that the upcoming Witcher game will see CD Projekt Red switch over from its existing in-house REDengine engine — which the company has used for over a decade — to Unreal Engine 5, as part of a “multi-year strategic partnership” between CDPR and Epic Games.

Despite that partnership, the next Witcher game won’t be exclusive to the Epic Games Stores, and CDPR will continue to use REDengine for some current projects, like the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, too.

Beyond that, however, CDPR is making a point to note that “no further details — such as a development time frame or release date” are being provided at this time about the new title. Given the length of development times for CD Projekt Red games, however, it could be some time before we get more information.

Take the infamously long development period for Cyberpunk 2077, which was first announced in 2012, got a teaser trailer in 2013, and was delayed numerous times until it finally debuted in December 2020. And even then, the release was rife with issues and bugs that CD Projekt Red is still ironing out over a full year after release.

Still, news of a new Witcher title is exciting, even if details are particularly slim. The Witcher 3 is still regarded as one of the finest open-world RPGs ever made, and with the franchise riding to new heights of popularity thanks to the ongoing Netflix series (and its spinoffs), it’s easy to see why CDPR would be looking to kick off “a new saga” of Witcher adventures.