CD Projekt Red Says The Witcher 4's Unreal Engine 5 Shift Was Not Caused by Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red's decision to build The Witcher 4 in Unreal Engine 5 has naturally invited comparisons with the difficult launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The sci-fi RPG arrived after years of enormous anticipation, but its 2020 debut was defined by technical problems, particularly on some console versions. The studio spent a lengthy period issuing patches, overhauls, and major updates to improve the experience.

Because Cyberpunk 2077 was CD Projekt Red's last major game made with its proprietary REDEngine, the later announcement that the next Witcher saga would use Epic Games' technology looked, from the outside, like a straightforward response to those struggles. Michal Nowakowski, joint CEO of CD Projekt Red, has pushed back against that conclusion, however. Speaking on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast, he described the connection as a "false assumption," arguing that the core issues surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 were not fundamentally caused by REDEngine itself.

Instead, Nowakowski framed the Unreal Engine 5 partnership as a strategic choice rooted in what CD Projekt Red wants to be as a developer. The company's ambition, he said, has always been to create ambitious games rather than to become a technology company for its own sake. In-house engine development existed because it supported the studio's games, not because building engine software was the end goal.

A Change in Priorities, Not a Rejection of Past Technology

REDEngine powered a substantial part of CD Projekt Red's modern history. The technology was used across the studio's biggest role-playing games, including the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. It helped the developer create huge worlds, detailed quests, and technically ambitious visual presentations, all tailored to the specific kind of open-world RPG CD Projekt Red was trying to make.

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That history makes it important not to read the Unreal Engine move as an assertion that the older technology was worthless or irreparably flawed. Nowakowski's comments suggest a more practical calculation: maintaining a proprietary engine demands significant time, expertise, and resources. A studio that makes its own tools must continually improve them alongside the game itself, while also supporting the teams using those tools.

For a company with several large projects in development, moving to a widely supported engine can potentially free more of its effort for game production. That does not mean the technical work disappears. It means the work is shared differently, with Epic maintaining the broader platform and CD Projekt Red focusing its contributions on capabilities that matter to its own games.

Nowakowski emphasized that the studio's central objective is making visually sophisticated, technically advanced games that tell immersive stories. That distinction matters. Tools are essential, especially for games at the scale of The Witcher 4, but they are ultimately meant to enable the worlds, characters, choices, and narratives that players experience.

The Matrix Awakens Helped Shape the Decision

The turning point came as Unreal Engine 5 began to demonstrate what it could become. Nowakowski pointed to The Matrix Awakens, the Unreal Engine 5 experience that showcased dense city environments, high-detail character models, lighting technology, and large-scale streaming. At the time CD Projekt Red was considering its options, Unreal Engine 5 was not yet entirely where the company needed it to be for its own work.

Even so, the leadership team saw potential. The relevant question was not simply whether the engine, in its off-the-shelf state, could make a game like The Witcher 4. It was whether Epic Games and CD Projekt Red could work together to develop the features, workflows, and technical solutions needed for an RPG of that size and complexity.

That thinking led to a strategic collaboration between the two companies. The arrangement is more consequential than a conventional licensing agreement. CD Projekt Red is not merely selecting Unreal Engine 5 and adapting its designs to the available toolset; it is participating in work on the engine itself. For a developer accustomed to owning and evolving its own technology, that level of involvement may be particularly important.

Open-world RPGs place unusual demands on an engine. They need to stream huge environments smoothly, handle cities and wildernesses with radically different densities, support complex quests, maintain persistent world states, and accommodate extensive cinematic dialogue. The technical needs are not limited to visual fidelity. Teams also need reliable tools for designers, artists, writers, quest developers, animation specialists, and quality-assurance staff working across a massive production.

Unreal Engine 5 brings a large ecosystem and established tooling, but CD Projekt Red's games have their own requirements. The collaboration appears intended to make sure the engine can address those needs without forcing the studio to compromise on the scale it associates with a major Witcher release.

Working Inside Unreal Engine's "Black Box"

Nowakowski characterized CD Projekt Red's role as unusually close to Epic's own work on Unreal Engine. He said the studio is effectively the only team outside Epic that is working with the engine's internal "black box" through their joint efforts. In other words, the partnership involves access and collaboration below the level at which most developers interact with a commercial engine.

That could have implications beyond one game. Developers commonly customize commercial engines, build proprietary systems on top of them, and create game-specific tools. Directly contributing to the foundational technology is a different kind of relationship. It gives CD Projekt Red a chance to help shape solutions that could affect how its teams build future projects, while Epic benefits from feedback and engineering work tied to an especially demanding genre.

For players, the immediate takeaway is not that every Unreal Engine 5 game will suddenly resemble a Witcher title, or that engine choice alone guarantees a smooth launch. Technology is only one part of development. Design decisions, project management, testing, optimization, platform targets, and production scope all remain crucial. The history of game development is full of examples showing that neither proprietary engines nor third-party engines automatically determine a game's quality.

Still, the switch provides a clear view of CD Projekt Red's long-term direction. Rather than continuing to devote its full engine-development effort to REDEngine, the company is placing its future large-scale development around Unreal Engine 5 and a closer technical relationship with Epic. It is a move meant to concentrate the studio's internal attention on the games it wants to make.

The Witcher 3's Future Also Uses Unreal Engine 5

The Witcher 4 is not the only project connected to this plan. Nowakowski said Unreal Engine 5 is also behind the remaster of The Witcher 3. That gives the engine transition a more immediate point of reference than the next mainline Witcher game, which remains one of CD Projekt Red's most closely watched projects.

The remaster is expected in just over a week, making it the first opportunity for audiences to see some of the results associated with the newer technology. A remaster and an entirely new open-world RPG are very different undertakings, of course. The former works from an existing foundation, while The Witcher 4 is being created as a new entry intended to launch the next Witcher saga. Even so, the remaster's arrival will be a notable milestone in the company's transition away from REDEngine.

Discussion around The Witcher 3 has also touched on the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion. The game's lead writer has argued that The Witcher 3 should not be treated as a fixed monument, making the prospect of adding a new expansion less extraordinary than some fans may believe. Together, the remaster and expansion conversation underline the continued importance of Geralt's adventure even as CD Projekt Red turns toward the franchise's future.

Ultimately, Nowakowski's explanation reframes the Unreal Engine 5 announcement. The shift is not being presented as an attempt to escape the legacy of Cyberpunk 2077's launch. It is being presented as a decision about focus: CD Projekt Red wants to put its energy into building ambitious role-playing games and telling the kind of stories for which it is known, while working with Epic to ensure the underlying technology is capable of supporting those ambitions.

Whether that collaboration delivers the benefits fans hope to see will only become clear when the projects arrive. But the studio's message is now more specific: The Witcher 4's technology change is about the future of its development process, not a simple verdict on REDEngine or an admission that its previous engine was the defining problem behind Cyberpunk 2077.