Epic Games recently had a live stream event named “The State of Unreal 2022” in which it highlighted several developers that are using Unreal Engine 5 to make games, along with showcasing how developing with the engine can make games look and play better. CD Projekt Red took part in this stream and gave some subtle insight into the development process of the nextWitchergame. CDPR had recently announced it was switching from its own in-house game engine to Unreal Engine 5 to make the next highly anticipated game in theWitcherseries.
The Witcherdeveloper had already developed its own game engine named REDengine. This engine was used in multiple CDPR projects, most recently forCyberpunk 2077, and isstill being used for the upcomingCyberpunk 2077DLC.
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It is unusual for a developer with its own in-house engine to switch to a third-party engine, especially for a signature property as lucrative asThe Witcherseries. CD Projekt Red used its time in The State of Unreal developer showcase to explain why it had made theswitch to Unreal Engine for the nextWitchergame. The decision to change engines came down to Unreal Engine 5’s new focus on open world game design rather than the linear games which earlier iterations of Unreal saw the most success with.
As CD Projekt RED is famous for making large, open-world RPGs with many scenario-altering choices for the player to make in almost every mission and side quest, the developer really emphasized the importance of building such games on stable and reliable engines. Though never explicitly mentioned in the live stream,the fact thatCyberpunk 2077was a game plagued with bugs and glitchessince its infamous release back in 2020, likely has to do with CDPR’s choice to switch game engines.
CDPR’s original REDengine was first used for theWitcher 2and has been heavily modified and updated in the years since, but the REDengine never could quite keep up the same technical pace as otherin-house developer engines such as Rockstar’s RAGE engine. TheWitcher 3was a famously glitchy game despite its critical acclaim, but it wasCyberpunk 2077that may have proved that CDPR’s creative vision as a developer had finally outgrown its technical software.
In this case, it is a good thing that CDPR has made the switch to developing games on Unreal Engine 5. The public consensus based on reviews for CD Projekt Red’s more recent games is that the developer excels in writing deep and often morally-grey narratives for players to navigate, but is often let down on a technical side, with glitches and bugs that diminish otherwise perfectly crafted worlds. Moving to Unreal Engine 5 provides a sense of guaranteed stability for the game. This will not only allow CDPR to focus on its strengths in writing and characters, but will also reassure wary players that still feel somewhat burned afterCyberpunk 2077’s release.
