CD Projekt Red builds Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk Orion on one shared UE5 base
Summary
CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michał Nowakowski says the switch to Unreal Engine 5 redirects engineering resources toward storytelling.
Epic's Matrix Awakens demo triggered CDPR's UE5 evaluation.
The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk sequel Orion now share one UE5 base, cutting duplicated engineering work.
"The dream of the company was actually never to make technology"
01
Nowakowski separates the UE5 decision from Cyberpunk's launch crisis
CDPR built REDengine variants for The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 across 2011 to 2020.
Nowakowski calls the belief that Cyberpunk's launch drove the switch a false assumption.
He positions CDPR's technical problems in 2020 as not rooted in REDengine itself.
The studio's priority is telling stories, with engine work treated as a means to that end.
02
Matrix Awakens demo triggered a build-vs-license evaluation
CDPR's UE5 review began after an early look at Epic's Matrix Awakens demo.
The initial verdict was that UE5 could not yet ship games at CDPR's scale.
CDPR then entered a direct engineering collaboration with Epic to adapt UE5 to its needs.
March 2022 confirmed the next Witcher on UE5, extended later to the Witcher remake.
03
CDPR's engine-level access blurs the customer-vendor line with Epic
Nowakowski says CDPR is the only team outside Epic with access to UE5's internal architecture.
"We're actually, I think, the only team in the world outside of Epic that deals with the inside of the 'black box' that the engine is"
The arrangement redirects CDPR's spend from full engine maintenance to a narrow feature set.
CDPR keeps influence over engine development without building an engine from scratch.
04
Shared UE5 base spreads engineering costs across two franchises
The Witcher 4 and Orion, now in pre-production, build on the same UE5 foundation.
"The more tailored, the more appropriate for our type of game the pipelines are and the technology is, the easier it is to make the game"
Standardizing on UE5 widens CDPR's hiring pool beyond REDengine specialists.
CDPR has not disclosed onboarding-time or hiring-cost figures.
What this means
For Publishers & Developers: A licensed engine with vendor co-development can preserve customization while cutting full-stack maintenance cost.
For Service Vendors: Epic's deep-access arrangement with CDPR sets a precedent AAA studios may demand before committing to UE5.
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