CD Projekt RED co-CEO Michał Nowakowski addressed the engine switch for The Witcher 4 on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast, stating outright that the move from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5 had nothing to do with Cyberpunk 2077's launch troubles. The company, he said, never wanted to be in the technology business at all. Their focus remains telling stories in the most convincing and immersive way possible.

The real catalyst came from an early look at Epic's The Matrix Awakens tech demo, which prompted internal questions about whether UE5 could handle the scale of CDPR's open-world games. Nowakowski described a "strategic collaboration" with Epic that lets the studio work inside the engine's "black box," something he claims no other external team is doing. This setup avoids building tech from scratch while still allowing tweaks for their specific needs.

The Witcher 4 is now slated for a 2028 window alongside other UE5 projects like the Cyberpunk sequel. CDPR positions the change as a way to release more games by reallocating resources away from engine maintenance. Whether the partnership delivers remains to be seen, especially given ongoing discussions around UE5 performance in large-scale titles.