CD Projekt Red announce The Witcher remake using Unreal Engine 5
CD Projekt Red have announced via the official Witcher twitter page today that the Polish company is currently developing a remake of the original Witcher game from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. The game is currently in early development with veteran Witcher series staff working in collaboration with Fool’s Theory, another Polish game studio responsible for developing Baldur’s Gate 3, and Divinity Original Sin II.
The Witcher was originally brought to life in the fantasy novels and short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, with the first being a short story written in 1986. Sapkowski described The Witcher series as a story about beast hunters who develop supernatural abilities at a young age to battle wild beasts and monsters, with the series revolving around the main protagonist, Geralt of Rivia.
The first Witcher game was released back in 2007 which received positive reviews from critics and received an aggregate score of 81/100 on Metacritic. In 2008, an enhanced edition of the game was released which featured a number of new animations, updated models, bug fixes, and corrected dialogue.
With the incredibly lifelike graphics and systems that have been seen so far from Unreal Engine 5, fans of The Witcher series are excited to see the game where it all began, in a breathtaking new light (literally), reanimated and rejuvenated with state of the art graphical processing technology. Additionally, with season 3 of The Witcher TV series starring Henry Cavill expected to come to Netflix in 2023, the world created by Sapkowski appears to grow larger and larger everyday.
“The Witcher is where it all started for us, for CD PROJEKT RED. It was the first game we made, ever, and it was a big moment for us then. Going back to this place and remaking the game for the next generation of gamers to experience it feels just as big, if not bigger,” said Adam Badowski, Head of Studio, CD PROJEKT RED. “Collaborating with Fool’s Theory on the project is just as exciting, as some of the people there have been previously involved in The Witcher games. They know the source material well, they know how much gamers have been looking forward to seeing the remake happen, and they know how to make incredible and ambitious games. And although it will take some time before we’re ready to share more about and from the game, I know it’ll be worth the wait.”