New Witcher Game Definitely Not Epic Exclusive, Despite Partnership

So CD Projekt RED announced that a new Witcher game is underway and the internet has quite predictably lost all dignity.

Fans were so eager to see the teaser - which is little more than a screenshot of an unknown amulet in the snow - they literally crashed the website. While we are very slim on details as of yet, we know that it is not a direct sequel to The Witcher 3, and that it is being developed in partnership with Fortnite developers Epic Games. However, fans have raised concerns that the upcoming game will only be available through Epic's proprietary store front, the Epic Games Store.

Fans of the franchise can check Geralt out in the story trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt below. 

Following the announcement on Twitter, the studio's global PR manager Radek Grabowski, shared details of the company's partnership with Epic. The deal with the media giant allows them to use the Unreal Engine 5, which is at the cutting edge of game engine technology to build the new title. This move is what the pair are calling a "tech partnership."

However, the statement doesn't really answer the question about what Epic gets out of the deal. The obvious answer is of course profit, and it is assumed that Epic will share in the games revenue. But as the company likes to keep games so that they are sold only on the Epic Games Store, players were worried the partnership would mean they would be unable to purchase the new title through other services like Steam or GOG.

Luckily, the official Twitter account for the upcoming game set things straight by saying that the studio has no intention of keeping the game solely on one platform.

We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.

— The Witcher (@witchergame) March 21, 2022

This, of course, doesn't mean that plans can't change as development has only just begun. Seems the team have consumer's interests at heart though, at least in principle.