Fans of The Witcher universe must be patient: CD project red It’s confirmed that work on a remake of the first part of the series is not actually underway yet. At the same time, the project is not over – its development is temporarily tied to the creation of The Witcher 4, as the team needs to wait for the technology and production tools to be ready to build a new version of the original RPG.
Remake the first part wizard It will be presented to the public as early as October 2022. The project then took off under the working title Canis Majoris, with its development entrusted to Polish studio Fool’s Theory. CD Projekt Red should serve as creative director, controlling key decisions and project direction.
Since then, there’s been virtually no news about the long-awaited redesign of the first game in the series. After several years of lack of news, fans naturally assumed there was something seriously wrong with the development. It is now known that the project has indeed been shelved, but there is no word of cancellation.
CD Projekt Red looks forward to promoting The Witcher 4
According to GameSpot, representatives from CD Projekt Red have confirmed that a remake of The Witcher 1 has been tentatively included in the production process The Witcher 4. In other words, full work on the game will begin later, when the team receives the necessary technology and tools.
Now fool theory Mainly busy with the development of add-ons songs from the past The Witcher 3 will be released in 2027. A small group of employees from the studio are also helping CD Projekt Red develop The Witcher 4.
CDPR explained that there are direct technical dependencies between the two projects. Some of the basic decisions required for the remaster had to be implemented in The Witcher 4 first.
“The Fool Theory team is primarily focused on the development of The Witcher 3: Song of the Past, while a relatively small portion of their team is supporting the development of The Witcher 4. As we previously reported, development of The Witcher Remastered is temporarily integrated with The Witcher 4 due to production dependencies.”
Therefore, the project’s current status looks more like a forced pause than a serious crisis or eventual halt to development.
The reason may be related to Unreal Engine
One of the most obvious reasons for this dependency is CD Projekt Red’s transition to Unreal Engine.
After years of using its own RED engine, the Polish company decided to abandon it in favor of technology epic game. The Witcher 4 was created on Unreal Engine, a technology foundation that should be used in subsequent games in the new trilogy.
The first part was also originally planned to be remade in Unreal Engine. So there’s actually an opportunity for CDPR to use it as another project that relies on a common technology base.
However, this means that it doesn’t make much sense for Fool Theory developers to create some of the necessary tools themselves from scratch right now. It would be much more rational to wait until relevant solutions are worked out during the production of The Witcher 4, and then transfer the experience and technology gained to the remake. Therefore, this project is directly related to the development progress of the fourth part.
When can we expect a remake of The Witcher?
CD Projekt Red has yet to announce any specific dates. Moreover, judging from the current resource allocation, it is obvious that reshooting the first “The Witcher” is not the company’s top priority in the near future.
CDPR currently has multiple major projects in production simultaneously. Most of the team is focused on The Witcher 4, which will be released in 2028. parallel development Cyberpunk 2Fool Theory is producing additional content for The Witcher 3.
If the current schedule continues, the next few years for fans of the universe will look like this: first The Witcher 3 Remastered, then A Song of the Past in 2027, and then The Witcher 4 in 2028. Only then might CD Projekt Red have more chances to fully return with a remastered version of the first installment.
At the same time, it is not ruled out that the project will gain new impetus earlier. A lot will depend on how quickly CDPR completes the technical foundations of The Witcher 4, and how Fool Theory’s staff is distributed afterwards.
