A recent earnings call from CD Projekt Red reveals that the upcoming remake of the original The Witcher will be an open-world experience.

It looks very much like the remake of The Witcher will be an open-world role-playing game. This is a significant departure from CD Projekt Red’s original title. Speculation about the upcoming remake has already been rife. During a recent achievements presentation, we were given details on what to expect in a modern reimagining of the game.

At the beginning of October, the Polish publisher and developer announced several projects in various stages of development, one of which was codenamed Canis Majoris.

It was later revealed that this would be the first remake of The Witcher. The first in the now legendary franchise, it was released in 2007. In contrast to Assassins of Kings and Wild Hunt, the second and third in the trilogy, the original Witcher game has aged rather poorly. So a remake is seen by many as justified. However, while the latest The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took the game in an open-world direction, the first title most certainly did not. While not linear, both the first and second Witcher games only offered significantly less scope than the vast landscapes provided by the third.

CD Projekt Red recently released its third-quarter results. The Witcher Remake was described as a “story-driven, single-player open-world RPG” and a “modern reimagining” of the 2007 game. The confirmation means that The Witcher Remake will see drastic changes from the original, not just because of the all-new graphics engine. The original game was built up of narratively distinct regions that could be accessed one after the other. Thus, much of the development present will likely require a significant overhaul.

Other details are scarce at the moment, but it has been reported that the project will be released to Polish studio Fool’s Theory alongside franchise veterans CD Projekt Red, with complete oversight by CD Projekt Red.

Unreal Engine 5 will be used, but the project is still very much in the early stages of development. Players should not expect any significant updates, let alone a release date, for some time.

Until then, however, we won’t have to do without the White Wolf. A team from CD Projekt Red is busy polishing up the next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is due on 14 December. In just over two weeks, we’ll be able to revisit the game with ray tracing, 4K textures and native 60fps. We’ll also get the newly introduced photo mode, alternate camera angles and a mission inspired by the Netflix series. The series’ popularity has dramatically increased the number of concurrent players of The Witcher 3. So it’s no surprise that CD Projekt Red has included armour sets and weapons from the series in the game.

Source: CD Projekt Red