CD Projekt Red has announced a high-profile tech partnership with Epic Games to use Unreal Engine 5 for The Witcher 4, but that doesn’t mean the Polish studio will soon be ditching its own REDengine.
The REDengine, which is CD Projekt Red’s proprietary game development software, will continue to be used to develop Cyberpunk 2077’s next expansion, the studio said in a press release. CD Projekt Red has been using this engine since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2011.
As for the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, we know it exists, but that’s basically it. CD Projekt Red has not announced when it will be released or what it will focus on, among other key details. Cyberpunk 2077’s post-launch development roadmap has been delayed so that the studio can focus on improving the base game, and that effort continues with the launch of update 1.52 today, the March 22.
The massive PS5 and Xbox Series X update | Cyberpunk 2077’s landed in February, further improving the game and implementing plenty of tweaks to take advantage of the new hardware.
CD Projekt Red is also developing a PS5 and Xbox Series X version | S from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and is slated for release in Q2, April through June.
CD Projekt Red’s partnership with Epic is a “multi-year” strategic agreement that covers the licensing of Unreal Engine 5, as well as the “technical development” of Unreal Engine 5. The agreement also covers “potential future releases” of Unreal Engine 5. ‘UnrealEngine. Additionally, developers CD Projekt Red will be working with Epic to help refine Unreal Engine 5 for open-world games.
Despite this close collaboration, The Witcher 4 – or whatever the game is called – will not be exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC. The game director has promised that there will be no shortage of employees during development of The Witcher 4.
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