The Witcher Remake Announced
Earlier this week, CD Projekt Red took to Twitter to announce the plans for one of their previously revealed projects. In a perhaps too soon Tweet, the official Witcher Twitter account posted the following:
‘Canis Majoris’ was one of the codenames that the company revealed earlier this month in a conference call. Although its good so see what one of these many mystery projects actually is, it does seem very premature. The line ‘please be patient’ harkens back to the iconic ‘coming when it’s ready’ release date for Cyberpunk 2077’s initial reveal. Hopefully, this time, the studio will have learned its lesson and not push this out before its fully baked. This may be the saving grace for the studio- as long as they do it right. However, it is important to note that Fools Theory are the studio set to helm this remake. These are the people behind Outriders and the upcoming Baulders Gate III- so it remains to be seen how well they’ll be at remaking the first Witcher title.
The first Witcher game is one that not a lot of people have been able to experience. Stuck on the PC since its inception, CD Projekt RED’s first foray into the Witcher universe was one with thick atmosphere, fantastic music and, well, less than stellar combat. Instead of the familiar third-person action battling we’ve come to know of the series, the first entry opted for more of a point-and-click approach- with combat essentially happening while you gave a series of slight inputs. This, of course, will be the biggest change for the remake and will not only modernize the game but also allow a lot of fans to play it console for the first time. As long as the atmosphere is matched, however, I can see this being a success on that factor alone.
As a side note, this tweet also gave the studio the opportunity to confirm that the next-gen upgrade of the Witcher 3 will still be coming this year. In response to a tweet by @SkadiBunneh, the studio said the following one-word message:
With the confirmation of the next-gen upgrade hitting before the end of the year, the announcement of a third season of the controversial television show, and now a remake of the game that started it all, it seems that the Witcher is building up an audience for their new trilogy slowly but steadily. Hopefully, this project (as well as all of the others announced) will be able to alleviate some of the distaste for the studio in the wake of Cyberpunk 2077’s destructive launch. However, it’ll likely be years until this releases- and therefore years for CD Projekt Red to make sure that this is the way for them to come back into the public’s good graces.
