The Witcher 4 is now in pre-production

In March, CD Projekt Red announced a new Witcher game during GDC. In a major shift, the studio also announced that it was moving all future development to Unreal Engine 5. Now, with UE5 officially available to all and after hiring for some new roles, The Witcher 4 has officially entered pre-production. 

Pre-production is the earliest phase of development and should be where the foundational ideas for the game are put in place. It can be a lengthy process, that involves lots of trial and error. With that in mind, the game is going to be years away from release and it is unlikely that CD Projekt Red will say much more about the game for quite some time.

The Witcher 4 (unofficial title), will be the first game from CD Projekt Red to abandon the RED Engine, the studio's own in-house tools that powered The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Over Cyberpunk 2077's development in particular, the studio faced a lot of issues and the hope is that by switching to the more industry-standardised Unreal Engine, a lot of those problems with production can be avoided.

Aside from the new Witcher game, CD Projekt Red is also working on a Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, due to release next year.

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KitGuru Says: While CD Projekt is switching to Unreal Engine 5 for this game, that doesn't necessarily mean development will be faster. I expect the new Witcher game to be targeting 2025 or 2026, but would not be surprised if it slipped a bit further. 

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