CD Projekt RED Reveals Why The Witcher 4 Is Being Developed on Unreal Engine 5

Almost all of CD Projekt RED's previous games — including Cyberpunk 2077 — were developed using the studio’s proprietary RED Engine. Despite its technical capabilities, the studio ultimately decided to switch engines — and now they've explained why.

In an interview with Digital Foundry, CDPR’s VP of Technology, Charles Tremblay, revealed that RED Engine struggled to handle multiplayer, a direction the studio still plans to explore. He also noted that the highly specialized nature of RED Engine was limiting the studio’s ability to develop multiple diverse projects simultaneously.

CD Projekt RED has already made several custom adjustments to Unreal Engine 5 in collaboration with Epic Games, and these improvements will be implemented in the upcoming The Witcher 4.

Recently, CDPR showcased a tech demo of The Witcher 4 running on UE5. We took a closer look at the demo in our article. This time, Ciri’s design has been well received by the majority of fans.