Cyberpunk 2077 may not have panned out the way many had hoped it would, but there’s still no shortage of love out there for CD Projekt RED’s other big IP, The Witcher– and there’s more to look forward to for fans of the series. The Polish studio has officially announced that development is underway on the next main instalment in The Witcher series.
Interestingly, CD Projekt RED says this next instalment is going to be the first game in “a new saga for the franchise.” It’s also been confirmed that the game will be developed on Unreal Engine 5, making it the first game since the original The Witcher (which was built on the Aurora Engine) to not use CDPR’s proprietary in-house toolset, REDengine.
CD Projekt RED says it has “no further details” to share regarding The Witcher’s next game, how long it’ll be in development, or when it’ll launch, and considering the fact that the studio is now looking to have much shorter marketing cycles for the game, that’s probably not going to change in the near future.
CDPR had previously said that the next Witcher game would begin development after Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, and more recently, confirmed that it would be one of two new AAA projects to begin production in 2022.
It’s also been known for some time that CD Projekt RED is looking to introduce multiplayer elements in its franchises, but it remains to be seen how (or if) that will materialize in future projects.
The Witcher franchise has collectively sold over 50 million units, as of May 2020. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – which is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch – will see an enhanced re-release for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year.