The Witcher - Announcement of a New Game

[Myrthos]

CD Project Red has announced a new Witcher game, which we currently file under the title: The Witcher: A New Saga. There is almost no information about this game and we don't even know if it is an RPG.

New Witcher Saga Announced. ​

CD PROJEKT RED Begins Development on Unreal Engine 5 as Part of a Strategic Partnership with Epic Games​

CD PROJEKT RED today revealed that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development with Unreal Engine 5, kicking off a new saga for the franchise and a new technology partnership with Epic Games.


Today's announcement marks the first official confirmation of a new game in The Witcher series since the release of CD PROJEKT RED's previous single-player, AAA RPG in the franchise -- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- which won a total of 250 Game of the Year awards and was later expanded upon with the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine add-ons.

The teaser image for the new game features a medallion, accompanied by the phrase A New Saga Begins. Beyond this initial confirmation of a new saga in The Witcher franchise, no further details -- such as a development time frame or release date -- were provided.

CD PROJEKT RED also announced that they will be moving to Unreal Engine 5 as part of the multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. Since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, released in 2011, CD PROJEKT RED has used their proprietary REDengine technology to build their games. This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. Developers from CD PROJEKT RED will collaborate with those from Epicwith the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences, beginning with the development of the next game in The Witcher franchise.

Speaking on the use of Unreal Engine 5 for this, and future games, CTO of CD PROJEKT RED, Paweł Zawodny stated:

"One of the core aspects of our internal RED 2.0 Transformation is a much stronger focus on technology, and our cooperation with Epic Games is based on this principle. From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership. 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 is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools. I can't wait for the great games we're going to create using Unreal Engine 5!"

Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, remarked about the partnership:

"Epic has been building Unreal Engine 5 to enable teams to create dynamic open worlds at an unprecedented scale and level of fidelity. We are deeply honored by the opportunity to partner with CD PROJEKT RED to push the limits of interactive storytelling and gameplay together, and this effort will benefit the developer community for years to come."

Simultaneously with these announcements, CD PROJEKT RED also provided confirmation that REDengine, the technology which powers Cyberpunk 2077, is still being used for the development of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion.

More information.

 

[Deleted member 18181]

battle royale with deck cards lol

 

[Arkadia7]

Not sure what to think of this. While I'm a big fan of Witcher 3, I dislike Epic games.
I suppose if this means the game will be an Epic exclusive, I will still be able to buy the next Witcher game from the online Good Old Games store. But I also don't know enough about Unreal engine 5 to know if this is a good thing or bad thing, or what it means for the next Witcher game.

 

[Mordegar]

In before Epic Exclusive Deal!

 

[LaHolt]

Sooo what happened to "we gonna spend years to 'nomansky' Cyberpunk?"

The game's still far from what you promised? Guys?

 

[Redglyph]

That's very good news, Unreal Engine is a solid engine and it will save CDPR a lot of time. It's even better when they do that at partnership level, because I'm sure it gives them a much better support.

If they had done that for CP2077, the release may have been smoother, perhaps even with less delay. It's good that they acknowledged it and took a sensible corrective action.

EDIT: Their PR is still a tad on the BS side though, a "new game announcement"... for which they can't give any information, even the title. It's obviously only about the partnership and switching engine

 

[Redglyph]

Not sure what to think of this. While I'm a big fan of Witcher 3, I dislike Epic games.
I suppose if this means the game will be an Epic exclusive, I will still be able to buy the next Witcher game from the online Good Old Games store.

From the announcement, the partnership is at technical level for the engine, which is a completely different activity. If CDPR are their own publisher, why would they agree to an Epic Store exclusivity? Unless they want to close GOG, of course (and give up on Steam). They did announce a return to their core activity, I certainly hope it's not what they meant.

This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant.

EDIT: To reassure, just in case, I saw this: https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1505952264212693002

We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.

 

[Morrandir]

Really looking for another Witcher RPG!

And I still hope for this:

I'd be fine with a new Witcher series in 10 years or something.

Rise of the Witcher Order: Geralt as the only remaining Witcher revives the Witcher schools with the help of Ciri who after 20 years of reigning in Nilfgaard is fed up with politics.
You play as one of the new Witcher aspirants with full character customization.

Also my estimation of 10 years might have been quite accurate.

 

[henriquejr]

From the announcement, the partnership is at technical level for the engine, which is a completely different activity. If CDPR are their own publisher, why would they agree to an Epic Store exclusivity? Unless they want to close GOG, of course (and give up on Steam). They did announce a return to their core activity, I certainly hope it's not what they meant.

Maybe this is just a preview for a future sale to Tencent, who knows?

 

[Redglyph]

Maybe this is just a preview for a future sale to Tencent, who knows?

:lol:

Well, that's probably how pretty much everything will end up in a few years.

PS: good estimation @Morrandir;!

 

[JDR13]

Could be good I guess, but it's hard to speculate with so little information.

Not sure how I feel about them using the Unreal Engine though. It's great for shooters and action games, but The Outer Worlds is the only RPG I can think of that's used it, and I thought it was very average.

 

[Redglyph]

Could be good I guess, but it's hard to speculate with so little information.

Not sure how I feel about them using the Unreal Engine though. It's great for shooters and action games, but The Outer Worlds is the only RPG I can think of that's used it, and I thought it was very average.

IIRC The Outer Worlds had been limited in order to support consoles, couldn't have this been a limiting factor for the visuals too?

Games like Jedi Fallen Order and Final Fantasy VII (remake) used it and look nice, though I haven't played them. The Ascent is looking good, but it's probably a bad example because of the performance issues (on release and for DirectX 12 anyway, I don't know if that's still the case).

 

[Stingray]

From the announcement, the partnership is at technical level for the engine, which is a completely different activity. If CDPR are their own publisher, why would they agree to an Epic Store exclusivity? Unless they want to close GOG, of course (and give up on Steam).

I realize they've said they aren't going to do it, but there'd be good reasons to only sell on GOG and Epic, and exclude Steam:

- When you're using Unreal Engine, Epic doesn't charge you the 5% licensing fee per copy sold, for copies sold via the Epic Store.

- Presumably CDPR would get 95% of sales revenue from GOG (just the 5% Unreal licensing fee), and they should get 88% of sales revenue from Epic. From Steam they'd only get 65% (30% to Steam and 5% for Unreal licensing). That is a massive difference. Not selling it on Steam (at least for a while upon release) could stand to make them a whole lot of money.

 

[Stingray]

Could be good I guess, but it's hard to speculate with so little information.

Not sure how I feel about them using the Unreal Engine though. It's great for shooters and action games, but The Outer Worlds is the only RPG I can think of that's used it, and I thought it was very average.

Mass Effect 1-3 used it. Colony Ship is using it, and looks good. But it does seem pretty rare for real RPGs...

 

[Carnifex]

It was inevitable, just surprising that it's taken this long to hear something solid, though this isn't really much. And an Epic exclusive simply means I'll be waiting even longer than normal to grab the final edition.

 

[largh]

but it's hard to speculate with so little information.

It is easy to speculate. Another thing is if one is right

There is a wolf school medallion in snow. So the witchers will come from Kaer Morhen again. Perhaps the snow refers to Ithlinne's Prophecy and the game takes place after the end of the world? Or then before referring to the era of wolf's blizzard?

Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame.

(I know you meant whether the game would good, just felt like twisting it a bit)

 

[largh]

Or actually is it a cat? Hmm...then it could take place whenever.

 

[JDR13]

Mass Effect 1-3 used it. Colony Ship is using it, and looks good. But it does seem pretty rare for real RPGs…

I forgot about ME, athough that series is only borderline RPG to me. I'm having a hard time seeing a Witcher game using it though. Hopefully Unreal Engine 5 is more moddable than the previous versions.

 

[Lannister]

for me, playing ciri is a no-go....
i would have preferred to play either geralt again or a new witcher........

 

[skally_wag]

PC Gamer:
CD Projekt says new Unreal Engine 5 Witcher game won't be 'exclusive to one storefront'