New Witcher Game Announced, Developed on Unreal Engine 5

Ciri Witcher!

Just no live service and don’t release a year too early like Cyberpunk.

I’m hype for this but the game might be buggy on release or Microsoft might buy the studio before the game come out make the game exclusive like they did Bethesda and StarField

Exciting news. When all else fails, go back to your bread and butter.

I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't tried to acquire them. They have a close relationship and the whole cyberpunk fiasco has weakened the company.

I am happy they remain independent however and hope they use this opportunity to re-establish themselves in the industry.

This'll be years away, but very exciting all the same. Just hope that CDPR has learned its lessons from Cyberpunk 2077.

Quite enjoyed The Witcher 3. After the CP77 debacle, I'll be holding off from an early purchase though.

I hope they have learned a valuable lesson.

Hope they don't overpromise like they did with Cyberpunk!
Witcher 3 is a classic but there are tons of things to improve there...

Take your time we don't want another cyberpunk.

Sounds like EGS exclusive for PC. So I'll sail the high seas to play it there if that is the case.

Learn from your mistakes CDPR, we do not need another controversial launch.

Interesting that they are turning their back on their own engine for this. Perhaps they just couldn't see a way of easily moving it forward and that it might have even cost them time working with it during the development of Cyberpunk and that moving to Unreal will move everything on a level.

Interested to see what they can come up with though.

After Cyberpunk 2077, I refuse to give CDPR any goodwill until I see they've dramatically turned things around with this game.

Great news. I hope they can make something even better than their past work using Unreal Engine. RedEngine served its purpose but W3 and CP2077 both suffered some horrifying graphical glitches every now and then and I wonder if that was because of the engine since the problems were present in both games.

Why dont they finish the launch edition of Cyber Punk first lol. Just playing but really it took the latest Witcher game like 3 years of updates to be good right?

8.5 years from the Cyberpunk announcement until its actual release. We'll all be dead by the time this comes out.

Interesting that the medallion doesn't match any of the medallions from The Witcher 3. Obviously this could just be an updated design, but still.

Whatever animal it is, it doesn't really look like a wolf — looks much more like some kind of wild cat. Hmmmm.

Here they go, announcing games that are at least 5 years away, and will fail to live up to any expectations.
Don’t they learn?

Make Ciri the lead, with Unreal it should lack many of the issues CDPR's engine brings.

@Enigk I really hope they try something less ambitious this time. The gimmick with CP2077 was "It's way bigger than W3" and they couldn't deliver on the hype they created. If they would just try to make something special that is within reason rather than creating the new greatest game ever each time, they would meet deadlines and probably satisfy more customers that way. There is enough quality games out there that we don't need a 150+ hr masterpiece every time from them.

GoW killed Kratos yet they managed to bring him back. 🤷

Between TW3 and the Netflix show not sure I need a new Witcher antagonist. Honestly there are times I feel like I'm playing Witcher 4 now w/ Elden Ring seeing as how I've been just riding around.

My ending - spoiler I guess - I think killed Ciri but Geralt was still alive. Though he did seem to want to die at the end. I only played it once.

Guess it doesn't matter, like @Enigk said, past my time. Plus they'll probably want to go super had like Elden Ring.

2 mentions in 1 post, I'm obsessed.😝

Ehhhh, The Witcher 3 ends in a great place. Not convinced it really needs a sequel. Hopefully it’s a prequel or just totally unrelated.

Woot! (And obligatory added words for PS comment requirements).

Releasing 2030 and being finished 2033
Sorry but CP2077 made me pessimistic when it comes to CDPR

@WallyWest
The engine change is definitely the part that catches my attention the most. I wonder if it was in response to the tech issues Cyberpunk and to an extent Witcher 3 had. Looking forward to seeing more on this though.

It's exciting news. Hope it turns out great. Though after the whole Cyberpunk affair, I'll wait until after release before considering getting this.

Will wait for your reviews. After the Cyberpunk 2077 disaster, i would only have myself to blame if i pre-ordered a CDPR game.

Then I really need to get around to playing Wild Hunt.

Completed every witcher game including the 600 hours of gwent since its beta so I'm definitely excited for this and the next gwent expansion releasing this year. They should also remake witcher 1 and 2 using the power of unreal engine 5

Vesemir prequel please or something closer to the original conjunction of the spheres!

I really want to like The Witcher games/tv show but I just can’t get into them. I’ve tried so many times but they just don’t click with me for some reason. It’s weird because I usually love this genre 🤷

I will still give this a go though when it’s released.

Unreal 5 games will be when we see a big leap in next gen gaming. Looking forward to it becoming standard. Hopefully W4 won’t be as much of a mess as Cyberpunk. In fact, maybe that game being such a mess will end up being a good thing, as CDProject can’t afford another big hit to their reputation when W4 releases

Please no PS4 release!

It is crazy though how one screw up can damage the faith people have in a studio. Months before CP2077 was released, I remember people talking to me about the game and saying how it will be amazing because it’s being made by CDPR. I didn’t even know who they were or what games they had made at the time. And now, because of CP2077, there’s some doubt and people are more cautious with their expectations. Just shows how perceptions can change like that.

Would love to control your own created Witcher. Kind of like a Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. Not really 100% customizable but enough for me.

@RBMango Witcher 3 launched broken. Thronebreaker was broken and was literally unplayable for some (including me), Cyberpunk 2077 was a giant mess.

CP2077 wasn't the exception unfortunately. I've learned my lesson.

@ShogunRok Maybe the reformed school of the cat after Witcher 3. It gets turned into school of the Lynx iirc

@Athrum Ohhh, you might be right. The design would definitely match up.

@NomNom Microsoft should stop buying studios that are viewed as performing badly or having cultural problems because they just don't have a track record of managing studios like that well and they have enough on their plate with Activision.

It makes a lot of sense to get on Unreal 5 considering what a problem their own engine has been.

Super excited for a new Witcher. Love Witcher 3, and it's expansions, to death.
Hopefully it'll release like Witcher 3 in 2015, and not Cyberpunk in 2020.

Be interesting to see if cyberpunk gate has any bearing on pre-orders/day 1 sales for this release. CDPR can't deliver any BS on this. Review embargo needs to be lifted at least a week before release

I hope they sort out the looting promts, they drove me mad in W3…

Oh yes! Looking forward to The Witcher 3 PS5 edition in the meantime.

Wow. I don't understand how people are excited for this. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to know it's coming but this is the dumbest way of announcing it.

If you don't have footage, then maybe you shouldn't be announcing it? Here I thought they'd learn from Cyberpunk 2077's premature announcement. Well done, CDPR, keep on hyping another game up again! I'm not gonna hold my breath, CDPR has a lot of redeeming to do. This ain't it.

Exciting!

But only if they release it when it's ready.

Makes sense for Ciri to be the new young lead and Geralt to be Scully. Fingers crossed.

Great news. There's now another non-port that I'm excited for. Assuming this is coming to PS5 as well... maybe this gen won't be as crappy as I thought.

To me 2023 festive season is the furthest release period for which any hype gets activated.

I would have preferred they remastered the first two titles.

Please make good combat gameplay.

Do you think it'll rise to the same levels of mediocrity as Witcher 3, yet somehow showered in praise by everyone?

@NomNom Buying CDPR means also probably buying CDP. That also mean taking ownership of GoG, and the other studios under CDP.

Yes! No need to say more.

Yes! A new rpg from the same studio that made the excellent CP2077. Yes, you read that right. Also, I hope it leans on the books. If it's anything like the Nerflix show I'll be staying away from it.

N.i.c.e. im still playing witcher 3 complete edition on my ps4 pro. Witcher 3 complete edition still looks amazing on my ps4 pro and my brand new Samsung 4k hdr 📺 tv.word up son

I see this going 1 of 2 ways.

1. The game takes 5-8 years to come out, the team will be incredibly overworked and we'll get a grim reminder of how scummy CDPR is.

2. The game takes 5-8 years to come out, the team will be incredibly overworked and we'll get a grim reminder of how scummy CDPR is and also they get bought by Microsoft.

I really hope they finish it before releasing it.

Amazing!... super excited.

I played Cyberpunk on PC (loved it) So do not judge it based on the PS4 version. Same way I do not judge my PS5 games based on an awful Switch port.

SOLD.
SOLD.
SOLD.

Loved Witcher 3. My favorite RPG of all time. I hope it actually has nothing to do with Geralt or Ciri. I'd love to just play around in that world again, see new areas, explore, use new magic, etc.

I'd love if they went elsewhere in their pseudo-Europe and explored the rest of the broader world. Or if it took place in a far-removed timeline (before or after the Witcher saga). That would be cool, too. Like, what's the knock-on effect of all that magic and sorcery and monsters and stuff, but brought forward a few hundred years? What does the world look like? That could be cool to explore.

@NomNom there's time remember Bethesda announced starfield on all platforms then Microsoft bought them but hopefully they remain independent so all gamers across all platforms can experience what should be another witcher masterpiece 🤔

@Octane witcher 3 launched fine i played it on ps4 no issues

@nessisonett likey be completely different story, characters then they wil add them to the TV series on netflix

Release it when it's ready and I'm sure it'll be worth the wait. I hope they've learned from CP2077.

@Falkirk4life At launch?

Yah no. Not this time CDPR. Never getting hyped or pre ordering another one of your products.

Let's be honest though, this announcement is nothing more that CDPR drumming up buzz metrics that they can pitch to now cautious investors for this project. AS they need to prove that they haven't lost customer confidence over the last fraud they pulled on the investors and users.

Ironically enough they still made an enormous amount of money off that trash, even amidst the fraud and widespread reports of a toxic workplace and talent loss.

Fool me once CDPR. Never again

As others have said, I would love it if Ciri was the main character for this new saga. As good as The Witcher 3 was, I'd be one of the few people that didn't think it was possibly the best game of the last generation. It was good, but I was more attached to the story and the characters than the actual gameplay. So, it'd be disappointing if it was a completely new cast of characters and is why I'd love it if Ciri was the main character.

As for them making sure the game is ready, I would think they actually did learn from quite possibly the biggest debacle in gaming in a long long time. Another instance like Cyberpunk 2077 with The Witcher 4 and the company would probably be done and they'd have to know it. Sure, it would sell really well at first since it's The Witcher, but I'd have to imagine a decent amount of those people would demand a refund again. It will probably have some bugs, but so did The Witcher 3. That's acceptable at this point. I understand people hesitating to pre-order whenever the time comes, but I think it will be ok for people willing to take the plunge.

@WallyWest Definitely seems like Ciri as the protagonist would be the logical progression from III's story considering + the amount of exposition of her character in it and then Geralt's in the Blood & Wine expansion.

Never played these games... took me 3 tries to get past the first season on Netflix. It wasn't bad tbh I quite liked it, but season 2 for me is not doing it for me.

Its unfortunate because I love this kind of stuff, but this franchise never grabbed me.

The image is really cool though

Definitely an interesting choice to go with UE5 this time around. Seeing as we haven't seen any games that uses this engine yet I can't form an opinion on this right now, but TW3 downgrade debacle followed by the CP2077 tragedy makes me think the REDengine isn't doing so great when it comes to multiplatform development.

Either way this is exciting news, but they're not getting another pre order out of me 🙂

Glad to see UE5 engine is getting more adoption. It really is an amazing piece of technology. It will be a great engine for open world titles - pop-in will finally be a thing of the past.

Nanite kind of reminds me of the dream that Euclideon had a long time ago with Unlimited Detail.

A game in the past, when witcher were at they glory would be great, like an younger Vesemir saga. Ciri is cool but the decaing condition of witcher schools at her time is a bit depressing.

@ShogunRok the wiki about school if the cat is quite interesting, not neutral but spies, assassin's and swords for hire according to the fandom wiki. A lot of other stuff from the books that give them a lot of slope for games.

Edit: School of the lynx is also a good call, a co-op between Lambert/Keira Metz and the survivors of School of the cat to recover the mutations and begin raising new witchers, The western continent was then colonized supported by the school of the lynx, new land and new monsters.. This would be the perfect setting for new games as it opens up a new world from the current trilogy while still being able to reverence them. Good call @Athrum

Game director in twitter wrote that they’re now hiring in all positions for this project. Seems it’s in early development. Won’t be ready before 2027-28. What they were doing 7 years now. 12 year cycles between AAA games is longer than console generation cycles.

Man I'm glad they're going back to the golden egg.

Cyberpunk was actually a really cool game if you have it a chance, & had a lot of awesome things going for it, with massive improvements since Witcher 3.

I just hope they get the next Witcher right & don't ***** it up...
No ***** American identity politics, no blatant tokenism, be true to the franchise & get it right.

Honestly just take all the time , cuz another incomplete mess would ruin their legacy forever

Well this can go 2 ways, Ciri is lead character now or they allow us to make our own Witcher(probably safest) people will expect too much if its ciri. And I imagine this is a very long from release both company and investors don't want that ***** storm again.

Take your time, but if 9 years was not enough for cyberpunk, then I don’t really understand how many years cdpr needs to make a bug free game this days.

If its as good as 3' we are in for a treat..😁

I'll have to wait until after the hype/scam because otherwise you'll get another monstrosity of a game.

Hopefully another masterpiece awaits

Preorders are going to be poor I reckon

@DomGC they actually lost money and people won't pre order this time. So they shut down if they ever do that again.

@General_Spiller i have no doubts about witcher , these types of games they seem to be just fine in(3rd person rpg). i just think they were trying to do too much with the cyberpunk game. they seem to be adjusting and making cyberpunk a better game though , so i'll give them credit for that.

@Uromastryx i wouldn't mind if the game takes place years and years later , kind of like a fable type situation. you are the love child of his , so you can customize the character you want to be.

@twitchtvpat yeah sounds good, go on a quest to find others like yourself start a new witcher school, bring alliances and order to the lands etc.

@Octane Played fine at launch. I still have my v1.00 disc. There were minor FPS issues in crookback bog, and some other areas which took them a few patches to iron out. It wasn't perfect for sure, but it was far from "broken". CP2077 was absolutely undeniably broken.
I think they built on what they had done in Witcher 2 for Witcher 3. I don't think it was a far stretch. Witcher 1 was ass though in comparison to 2.
CP2077 showed that they were out of their league in creating a world that wasn't consisting of empty fields, water travel and windy trees. Populated towns in witcher3 were much much simpler than the city of cyberpunk. I really think they bit off way more than they could chew with that game.

And I half expect them to do the same with Witcher 4 - but hopefully they pull back their scope and expand on what they learned in Witcher3 rather than reinventing the wheel - as that clearly does not go well for them.

I'm only hoping for a few things in the next Witcher game right now: better swimming/horseback controls, the ability to kill NPCs, and female major characters being dressed sensibly rather than mincing around in high-heeled boots with their tops unlaced to show off their chests.

***** Tencent