CD Projekt Red Shifts to Unreal Engine 5: What It Means for Future Games Like The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red, the renowned developer behind the Witcher and Cyberpunk series, has announced a significant shift in its game development strategy. In an interview with Eurogamer, Charles Tremblay, CDPR’s vice president of technology, revealed that the company is transitioning from its in-house REDengine to Epic Games‘ Unreal Engine 5.

This decision, however, was not driven by the tumultuous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which was marred by bugs and performance issues. Tremblay emphasized that the team is proud of the engine they built for Cyberpunk and that the switch is not a reaction to the game’s rough start. Instead, the move is aimed at enabling the simultaneous development of multiple games, a capability that the REDengine did not easily support.

CDPR currently has three major projects in development: The Witcher 4, codenamed Polaris, which has just entered full production; Orion, the next game in the Cyberpunk series; and an original IP codenamed Hadar. The switch to Unreal Engine 5 is intended to facilitate more efficient and collaborative development across these projects, allowing technical teams to work together more effectively.

Tremblay also highlighted that the new engine will enable CDPR to push technological boundaries and have all technical personnel working on different projects simultaneously, rather than being centralized on a single technology. This change is part of CDPR’s ambition to make The Witcher 4 a bigger, better, and more ambitious game than both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, with 400 out of 650 staff members worldwide working on Polaris.

The move to Unreal Engine 5 reflects a broader industry trend, with several studios opting for the widely-used engine over proprietary ones. However, this shift also raises concerns about the loss of in-house expertise and the potential long-term implications for game development).