The Witcher - A New Saga Begins

[gazelle]

Spoiler: Newstext

We’re happy to announce that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development, kicking off a new saga for the franchise.
This is an exciting moment as we’re moving from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5, beginning a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. It covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. We'll closely collaborate with Epic Games’ developers with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences.

At this point, no further details regarding the game — such as a development time frame or release date — are available.

REDengine, the technology which powers Cyberpunk 2077, is still being used for the development of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion.

 

[Koben]

The main topic on this news is that CDproject RED is ditching their own RED Engine to embrace Unreal Engine 5 from now on...

CD Projekt Red announces a new Witcher game featuring Unreal Engine 5 - VideoCardz.com

New Witcher Saga Announced. CD PROJEKT RED Begins Development on Unreal Engine 5 as Part of a Strategic Partnership with Epic Games CD PROJEKT RED today revealed that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development with Unreal Engine 5, kicking off a new...

videocardz.com

Frontier Developments should strongly consider doing the same!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I guess that will be a pass, then. The amount of stressing Epic Games very likely means it's going to be Epic Store exclusive.

"Multiyear strategic partnership" - right, my rear.

 

[Mole HD]

I guess that will be a pass, then. The amount of stressing Epic Games very likely means it's going to be Epic Store exclusive.

"Multiyear strategic partnership" - right, my rear.

There was a mention of that in the press release...

@Sebasti66855537 @gamebowski We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.
4:44 PM · Mar 21, 2022

https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1505948511178833920?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1505948511178833920|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://publish.twitter.com/?query=https3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fwitchergame2Fstatus2F1505948511178833920widget=Tweet

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

The thing I’m curious about the red engine is why they never released real modding tools for w3. Given how Skyrim it’s sister genre game got such long legs from the modding community it was mind boggling they just released scripting api docs and let the community work out the rest.

Yeah huge fan of the Witcher games and books, have no need for the Netflix treatment to mainstream it, already into it. I hope they do it justice, especially since cdpr made a point to mention how sick of Witcher they were when w3 was done.

Allowing for a chance that peak Witcher is done. Or maybe it could be a telltale game of the tv show, that would be interesting.

 

[Dooguk]

I hope it gets a first person view option.

 

[Mole HD]

The thing I’m curious about the red engine is why they never released real modding tools for w3. Given how Skyrim it’s sister genre game got such long legs from the modding community it was mind boggling they just released scripting api docs and let the community work out the rest.

Yeah huge fan of the Witcher games and books, have no need for the Netflix treatment to mainstream it, already into it. I hope they do it justice, especially since cdpr made a point to mention how sick of Witcher they were when w3 was done.

Allowing for a chance that peak Witcher is done. Or maybe it could be a telltale game of the tv show, that would be interesting.

If Geralt gets a Henry Cavill makeover in the new one...my wife will be playing it

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

If Geralt gets a Henry Cavill makeover in the new one...my wife will be playing it

They modelled an Hollywood actor in cyberpunk so it’s within possible now. Pretty sure if we had netflix my partner would be into it too (got literally all the other streams).

 

[CMDR Dizzy]

Nice to hear that they are going to make a new game in the Witcher universe. I hope it is going to be another well crafted RPG.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

I think the only thing acceptable is to one up the “hold my beer” event rockstar managed with rdr2. As much a I like medieval fantasy much better then American Wild West 1900’s.. have to admit the world is amazing.

I would love to see the exact survival mechanics copied. Witcher seems naked without them now.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

"

There was a mention of that in the press release...


https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1505948511178833920?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1505948511178833920|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://publish.twitter.com/?query=https3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fwitchergame2Fstatus2F1505948511178833920widget=Tweet

So it's GoG and Epic store then.

 

[Surefoot]

If Geralt gets a Henry Cavill makeover in the new one...my wife will be playing it

Geralt story is over, he's quit the Path and now is relaxing along with Yennefer at his posh vineyard mansion in Toussaint. Also I think CDPR mentioned at some point that they were done with Geralt. Since Ciri is supposed to be on the throne of Nilfgaard (canonically I guess, that's the ending that requires the most work) her story is kinda over too. One option would be to explore the alternative ending (where Ciri takes the Path) but she's a bit too overpowered to be a main character IMHO (her powers make her a real headache for balanced game design..).
The single picture they've produced so far shows a cat medallion, I suppose the main character would be of that school and that means a lot more character customization I think (as Cat school has much more open rules than other schools).

 

[Mole HD]

Geralt story is over, he's quit the Path and now is relaxing along with Yennefer at his posh vineyard mansion in Toussaint. Also I think CDPR mentioned at some point that they were done with Geralt. Since Ciri is supposed to be on the throne of Nilfgaard (canonically I guess, that's the ending that requires the most work) her story is kinda over too. One option would be to explore the alternative ending (where Ciri takes the Path) but she's a bit too overpowered to be a main character IMHO (her powers make her a real headache for balanced game design..).
The single picture they've produced so far shows a cat medallion, I suppose the main character would be of that school and that means a lot more character customization I think (as Cat school has much more open rules than other schools).

Which would be fine...except that my Geralt is relaxing in Kovir with the lovely Triss (having given Yenefer a complete body swerve for the entire game) whilst Ciri is a fully fledged Witcher after deciding ruling Nilfgard wasn't that great a job

I suspect there'll be full character creation involved with the new one...call it a hunch

 

[rootsrat]

Definitely looking forward to it!

The Lynx school (officially confirmed now) is a creation of a fanfic novel, so it's nice to see them embracing fan creations too.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Huh, I thought Ciri got stuck in the ice world. That is kinda the problem continuing such stories. A bit like Mass Effect. My guess is there will be new protagonists all around.

 

[Chaparral]

I will play the heck out of the new Witcher. Still pop into the DLCs every once an a while. So good. Still playing CP2077 too.

Unreal 5 looks amazing.

Grateful CDPR isn't just rolling over and quitting.

Took a bit of humility and reality-checkness to embrace UE5 for CDPR.

There are other developers close at hand that should look seriously at this move.

 

[Surefoot]

Huh, I thought Ciri got stuck in the ice world. That is kinda the problem continuing such stories. A bit like Mass Effect. My guess is there will be new protagonists all around.

In these games there are a handful of endings, and usually one or two "best" endings (in the sense they require more effort in game in order to reach them and are otherwise hidden) - that one was a "bad" ending (you missed something, or went the wrong way talking to her). To put her on the throne requires to carefully follow her quest and treat her as an adult when talking to her. In which case you get the choice of letting her follow her destiny, or convince her that's all nonsense and embrace the Path. It's a bit more clear cut than Mass Effect in that sense - you get a quite different ending if you make the effort of doing all the important side quests. (same goes for CP2077 by the way, which requires special attention to detail in Johnny's side quest, and a very specific action that unlocks a hidden ending..) - Usually these "high effort" endings are the canonical ones. But of course in the case of TW3 it's completely over after Blood&Wine (which was also the high point of the series along with the last chapter of TW2) so Geralt's ending is up to you...

Took a bit of humility and reality-checkness to embrace UE5 for CDPR.

There are other developers close at hand that should look seriously at this move.

Getting tied up with Epic may be not the best thing for a studio that can afford an in-house engine. I think it's more about CDPR losing a lot of skilled devs (to endless crunch, bad management practices, etc.) and not being able to maintain that strategy.

 

[Garix]

If they stick with the same combat mechanics as the others then it'll be a hard pass for me. Fingers crossed they find something better. Anything better.

 

[Jezzah]

I have to say I'm real glad they are going back to this genre. After CP2077 the Faith's been rattled for me.

I am unclear where the story goes here, I was kinda thinking something along the line of "another conjunction of the spheres" releasing a monster horde and antagonists looking to cause distress. All of this as background to having a character that plays as yourself rather than a scripted "geralt-a-like" going through the trials as a youngster etc etc.

 

[GuruNot]

If they stick with the same combat mechanics as the others then it'll be a hard pass for me. Fingers crossed they find something better. Anything better.

I struggled with the controls in Witcher 2 , but thought they made it infinitely better in 3!