The Witcher remake will be open-world

The recently-announced remake of the game that started the Witcher craze could be much bigger than anyone anticipated

CD Projekt RED, the developer behind the Witcher series, has quietly revealed that the recently-revealed remake of the first Witcher game will be a proper open-world adventure.

The company’s third quarter financial results presentation was released on Monday, and aside from the usual slides filled with charts and graphs, there was one slide that stood out. The presentation’s fifth slide mentioned that the remake of The Witcher will be a “story-driven, single player open-world RPG – a modern reimagining of 2007’s The Witcher” (thanks, IGN).

The term “open-world” is typically used to describe games that have very few loading screens, instead having one continuous world that players can explore without interruption.

The Witcher 3 was the start of the series’ massive success, shipping over 40 million copies since its release in 2015. Picture: CD Projekt RED

The Witcher remake being open-world is kind of a big deal, because for those not in the know, the original Witcher wasn’t actually an open-world game. It’s not particularly surprising that CD Projekt is going in that direction, however, as The Witcher 3 was open-world, as was Cyberpunk 2077, the company’s most recent game.

Having said that, despite being the developer on every game in the series so far, CD Projekt RED won’t be heading up the new remake. Instead, it’ll be developed by Polish studio Fool’s Theory, with some senior CD Projekt developers helping smooth things along.

Other than that, that’s almost everything we know about the upcoming remake. We haven’t been given a release date or even a rough release window, but we do know that it’ll be made in Unreal Engine 5 at least, which should help offer the visual fidelity that gamers have come to expect from big-budget games like this.

The Witcher is based on a series of Polish novels by author Andrzej Sapkowski, and has spawned games, comics, and even a Netflix series. Picture: Netflix

The Witcher 3 developer recently showed off its next-gen update, giving fans a little taste of what’s to come next month when the upgrade becomes available for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC next month. The update will greatly improve the visuals and performance of the game, as well as add some new quests and outfits based on the hit Witcher Netflix adaptation.

CD Projekt RED also announced more new Witcher and Cyberpunk games recently, too, in a low-key tweet in October. It revealed that there were three Witcher games in the works, including the remake, as well as a new Cyberpunk game, and a game based on a whole new IP, codenamed “Hadar”.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.