Cyberpunk 2077 Director: Switching to Unreal Engine 5 Doesn't Mean Starting From Scratch

In a recent interview, Gabe Amatangelo, the game director of Phantom Liberty and the upcoming sequel, explained that transitioning to Unreal Engine 5 does not mean that CD Projekt RED is starting from scratch. The decision was made based on the creative ideas the studio aims to implement.

"It isn't starting from scratch. A lot of times when you build these things, like Ray Reconstruction, there are a lot of methodologies you can apply to new engines," the developer said. Learnings and the strategy of setting up the architecture. And when you look at the things that Unreal does well, the things that REDengine does well – there are some similarities and some gaps, but the brilliant engineers are like 'with all the stuff that we know you crazy creatives want to do in the future, there's less of a delta here. Let's strategically shift to Unreal Engine 5."

Amatangelo also added that the studio is not simply using Unreal Engine 5 as is. The team is working together with Epic Games to develop tools specifically meant for their games' needs.

"Likewise there are some things that REDengine does better than Unreal that we're working with Epic to basically bring to that engine as well. So it goes both ways… It's about economies of scale: you can obviously do all these amazing things in both. There's so much nuance behind it, but it comes down to ways to approach things to be able to do more. Not necessarily better – it could be just as good – but do it more. It's a scale thing sometimes."

The next Witcher game will be CD Projekt RED's first title on Unreal Engine 5. Then, the team will use the technical base for the sequels. As for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, the development will be launched in 2024 alongside the opening of the studio's Boston office.

You can find the original story here. Previously, we shared a fun little easter egg in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty that reminds you of The Witcher 3.