CD Projekt Red beefs up The Witcher 1 remake by making it an open-world adventure

About a month ago, we learned that CD Projekt Red’s “Canis Majoris” initiative was in fact a remake of The Witcher 1. At the time, the studio talked about how exciting it was to kick off the original series, stating that “remaking [Witcher 1] for the next generation of gamers to experience it feels just as big, if not bigger.” That wording almost sounded like we’d be getting an open-world remake of the first game, and wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what’s happening.

During a company presentation (via VGC), CD Projekt confirmed that The Witcher 1 remake will be an open-world adventure. The Witcher 3 was the first one in the series to use an open world, so this will be a big difference for anyone who played the original 2007 game. It also comes with some concerns, as the smaller-scale experience may end up feeling inflated to achieve a similar scale as The Witcher 3. We can’t make any judgment calls on that now; we’ll just have to wait and see what CDPR has planned.

Don’t expect to see the game anytime soon though. When the remake was announced, CDPR asked fans to “be patient — it’s going to be a while until we can share more details.” At the very least, we know that the remake will run on Unreal Engine 5. The game is being totally rebuilt to run on the new engine. We also know that the heavy lifting is being done by Fool’s Theory, a support studio that’s lent its talents to games like Divinity: Original Sin II, Baldur’s Gate III, and Outriders.

The Witcher 1 remake isn’t the only thing that CDPR has cooking either. Pre-production on The Witcher 4 is now underway, and we’re going to get more than one new adventure. CDPR said that the next Witcher saga will be “more than one game.” Fans waiting for any of those can dig into The Witcher 3’s next-gen update on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on December 14.