Next Cyberpunk Game is Already Doomed if Unreal Engine 5 Switch Forces CD Projekt Red to Abandon a Revolutionary Technology

The recent announcement that CD Projekt Red (CDPR), the developers behind popular titles like Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 is transitioning from their in-house built REDengine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) for its upcoming Witcher and Cyberpunk games. This news has sparked a huge buzz of excitement and also concern among gamers and industry insiders alike.

While players are excited to see UE5 work its magic with CDPR, as it promises a host of advanced features and enhancements, there are also many growing concerns among them that this switch might come at a significant cost. The potential loss of the signature technologies that CDPR has developed throughout the years with its own REDengine.

Could CD Projekt Red’s Shift to Unreal Engine 5 Be a Misstep?

In the recent Cyberpunk 2077, REDengine 4 was the backbone of CD Projekt Red‘s beloved title. This engine has been instrumental in shaping the open-world experience for many years. It was developed and evolved by CDPR developers in-house in order to make it compatible and capable of producing favorable results.

The standout technology coming out from this development was the City Creation tech. This technology enabled the ability to craft vast, dynamic, and immersive cities in real time by using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

The result was a living, breathing urban landscape (Night City) that players loved in Cyberpunk 2077. This interactive and responsive open world pushed the boundaries of video games.

Due to achieving this incredible result with the previous engine, the community is worried that if CDPR is forced to abandon its City Creation technology in favor of Unreal Engine 5 (UE5)’s native and user-friendly tools, the impact on their future games could be huge.

It is clear that nobody doubts the capability of UE5, as it is a proven powerful tool with a wide range of capabilities but it comes with its own set of constraints and limitations.

Although UE5 is globally available and very user-friendly, it still needs time and process for the developer to fully adapt. To integrate this new tech, CDPR might have to sacrifice some of the unique technologies that were specially made to work on REDengine 4. However, the community has faith in the developer that it will not abandon its signature and revolutionary technology.

The Reasons Behind the Switch to Unreal Engine 5

Since CDPR just recently announced the shift to UE5, it is still too early to assess the impact of this engine switch. There might be a case where the future game will lose City Creation technology and other small technologies built to create the masterpiece of a game (even though the game took some time to reach that status).

But everything depends on the studio’s ability to overcome this hurdle and pave a new path for itself to achieve success in its future games. In an interview, Associate Game Director Paweł Sasko explained that they are not abandoning all the technology. His exact words were:

Some technology will move forward. It’s a matter of exactly what you can do. I cannot go into more detail because I will have to go into the design of our future games, which I cannot do.

Sasko further explained that the real benefit of UE5 is the global marketplace that allows them to buy an asset and incorporate it with their ideas, allowing them to get into the prototype phase faster. As the development of future titles goes further, players have to realize that integrating Unreal Engine 5 is not as bad as many believe.

In the end, the success of the next Cyberpunk and Witcher game lies in the studio’s ability to quickly adapt and innovate within the boundaries of the new engine.

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This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire