During the series’ anniversary event in October 2022, CDPR confirmed that the original The Witcher would receive a “full remake” (Remake), and confirmed that it would be developed by Fool’s Theory, with CDPR providing creative oversight. Unfortunately, the title went quiet after that, and now CDPR has also confirmed that development on The Witcher: Remake has been temporarily halted.
According to a report from GameSpot, CDPR officially confirmed this news recently, and the development team Fool’s Theory has already focused its main resources on the new large-scale DLC in The Witcher 3, titled “Old Time Melody.” A small portion of the team’s developers are also supporting the development of the series’ next mainline entry, The Witcher 4. Therefore, the team must wait until “Old Time Melody” is finished and The Witcher 4 reaches a certain stage before they can continue work on The Witcher: Remake.
“Fool’s Theory team is currently primarily focused on developing The Witcher 3: Old Times, while a relatively smaller portion of the team is supporting development on The Witcher 4. As we previously announced, development of The Witcher Remake has currently been temporarily integrated into The Witcher 4’s development pipeline, as the two projects share interdependent production processes. Since the Witcher remake will be built upon the foundations laid by The Witcher 4, we need to first prepare the necessary assets, tools, and production pipelines before we can develop it efficiently.” CDPR wrote in the statement.
Additionally, GameSpot’s report also notes that this technical dependency is likely related to the transition to Unreal Engine. CDPR has confirmed that they will gradually phase out their in-house RED Engine and shift to the latest version of Unreal Engine, with future titles such as The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 being developed on that engine. In other words, The Witcher Remake has been inadvertently affected by this transition process, and the planned remake will also be developed using Unreal Engine. It’s worth noting that CDPR has not stated that this remake project has been “cancelled,” but rather that development has merely been paused.
As things currently stand, The Witcher 3’s new DLC, “Song of Yore,” is slated for release in 2027, while The Witcher 4 is locked in for 2028, so fans may have to wait even longer before seeing The Witcher Remake. However, CDPR still has another surprise in store for fans of The Witcher series this year.
According to recent announcements from CDPR, all players who own The Witcher 3 on current-gen consoles and PC will receive the enhanced update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered Edition for “free” this September, featuring a massive overhaul of the game’s visual quality, enemy AI, and skill system, while giving players the chance to revisit this classic before The Old Time Tune and The Witcher 4 are released. Not only that, CDPR co-CEO Michał Nowakowski also recently emphasized that he never considered releasing this update as a “paid” offering.
In an interview with The Game Business website, Michał Nowakowski also shared some behind-the-scenes details about the development of The Witcher 3: Remastered, saying that initially, while developing “Old Time Song” together with the Fool’s Theory team, they realized that The Witcher 3, which has been out for over 10 years, could still look a bit more “modern.” Therefore, they began working on enhancing certain details, but as they kept making more and more changes, it gradually turned into a more complete and expansive “Remaster” project.
According to the latest information revealed by CDPR, the company’s developers have now exceeded 1,000 people, with the majority of them working on the development of The Witcher 4. At the same time, however, a fairly substantial team has already begun work on Cyberpunk 2. Previously, CDPR stated that they hope to release the new Witcher trilogy within the next 6 years, meaning that after The Witcher 4 launches in 2028, players could potentially see The Witcher 5 in 2030, while the trilogy’s finale, The Witcher 6, would have to wait until 2032.
Source: KOCPC Chinese