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

pcgamer.com:

The biggest surprise of today's Witcher 4 announcement (that's just what we're calling it until it has a title) is not that it's happening—of course it's happening—but that CD Projekt is switching from its in-house developed REDengine to Unreal Engine 5. REDengine, in various iterations, was used in The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077, but its time is clearly up: CD Projekt said in the announcement that the switch to a new engine signals the start of «a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games.»

"[The partnership] covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant," CD Projekt said. «We'll closely collaborate with Epic Games’ developers with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences.»

Cyberpunk 2077's many technical issues are the most immediately obvious probable reason for the switch to new technology—and don't forget that The Witcher 3 wasn't exactly in pristine condition at launch either. Moving to a more well-rounded, widely-used game engine could make for a  smoother experience for players right out of the gate.

More importantly, though, the new technology will hopefully make life a little easier for CD Projekt developers. «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,» CD Projekt Red chief technical officer Paweł Zawodny said in a statement.

Red 2.0 is a long-term development strategy announced in March 2021 that's intended to enable «parallel development» of multiple projects at CD Projekt, rather than the one-at-a-time approach it's taken until now.