Maybe im the only one which is a bit concerned about this partnership. What are your thoughts about this?

Not uncommon to partner with studios in order to make their title a showcase piece. Unity do it all the time, the most well-known example being Tarkov.

I'm curious how they'll make Elric in Unreal 5

CDPr has been dead to me for quite a while, since CP. partnering with epic/tencent is just another example of why any right minded person would avoid them like the plague. Just hope this leads to them selling GOG off to a decent company before the go full on Bitcoin powered nft microtransaction CDPrOnline!

Quite a few questionable things have piled up with CDPR lately... And no I'm not talking about CP2077 and it's bugs. But their DRM slackness, quality assurance for GOG customers (in respect to other platforms), and others.
Now that proximity with Epic n Tencent...

And even if I count all that out... all I see here once again is graphics-galore. And seriously, what sucked about TW3 was not it's graphics/presentation, but gameplay/balancing stuff. So I'm really sceptic about this and the TW4 announcement.

The other way around (CDPR helping out in the development of the engine) as well from the sounds of it:
"We'll closely collaborate with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences."

I'm not concerned about it.

This is most likely to be a deal to give CDPR preferential access to the Unreal Engine, including the ability to push development resource from Epic in a certain direction. It will benefit CDPR in that they get access to a ready developed and working engine, which means they can focus on the game itself. It benefits Epic in that their engine will be better at open world RPGs and they get to brag about a big name game being created in the Unreal engine.

Could it be a deeper partnership? Could it have future ramifications? Perhaps, but I can't say that these get anywhere near the top 10 things that I worry about on a daily basis.

Uneasy about it, since I don't wish to support epic in any way. Guess we'll see. Probably won't have a pc capable of running whatever comes out of the partnership for a very long time though, so probably won't affect me then xP

Surely you have purchased and therefore have at least one game running on any iteration of Unreal in your library already?

Wait. Someone is making an Eternal Champion game?

Quite possibly yes, but not consciously since I learned of Tencent's relation with Epic. I can't say for sure if I'm right or wrong, but it's the principle I've decided to stick with.

Cautiously optimistic, for me. I don't HATE Epic Games but I do have concerns about them, as a company. Also, thanks to Microsoft's ongoing monopolization attempts, I am automatically leery of ANY partnership between independent studios and large publishers/platforms.

Here's what I hope for:
> Bigger, better, more optimized games from CDPR that don't take 5+ years of hype to deliver
> More promotion (honest promotion, mind you) of their games
> No EGS exclusivity; I'm okay with GOG and EGS exclusivity but I think that'd be bad for their reputation as many still don't like using anything other than Steam (for whatever reason)
>>> Due to the popularity of CDPR's games, in spite of the rocky launch of 2077, maybe the partnership with Epic would inspire them to improve their launcher, which is currently extremely barebones
> Hopefully, the partnership with CD Projekt and their buyout of Bandcamp is a minor signal that they may be in favor of DRM-free or DRM-lite strategies, which could benefit the DRM-free cause quite a bit; considering how the EGL allows you to play most single-player games without the launcher (except to install & update), that might be a reality but I'm not going to get my hopes too high
> Perhaps the partnership with CDPR will allow Unreal to develop into the best engine for open world RPGs, which would be nice as it MIGHT convince Bethesda to make the jump; I didn't see the issues with Creation Engine until recently and if they could jump over, that might help increase the speed of development, as waiting 10+ years for a new game in each franchise is not good


Here's what worries me:
> As I said before, Microsoft's attempts at monopolizing the games industry has made me very leery of any partnerships between independent studios and large publishers/platforms. I hope CDP doesn't sell out to Epic, I want them to remain independent
> Epic, despite doing some good for the industry, does have concerning shareholders; Tencent is despicable and while they don't have a controlling interest, it's very likely that Epic has been forced to make concessions to keep Tencent on board with their investments
> The EGS and EGL have done some good for developers and players but it has made it very hard for DRM-free stores like GOG to compete due to their low royalties and the constant game giveaways. I don't see how this partnership will change that
> Of course, there's the exclusivity worry. I doubt they'll ever make any of their games exclusive to EGS unless GOG were to completely collapse but as I mentioned above, I don't think their reputation needs the hit it may get if CDPR doesn't release the game on Steam or has a timed exclusivity with EGS. I don't like Steam but like I said, there are still a lot of people who refuse to play PC games if they're not on Steam so what's the point of CDPR withholding it from Steam? It'd only benefit them to release it there and not releasing it there may be the final straw for some people after the 2077 issues
> It seems GOG themselves believe in their future and I certainly hope that's the case but I just hope that this partnership doesn't lead CDP to consider dropping GOG if they start having real issues. One of my favorite things about CDP is that they don't seem to be interested in abandoning things (excluding REDengine, but that makes sense). If they're partnered with Epic long-term and if GOG starts having serious problems, I'm concerned they may just make the jump over to EGS entirely, which would make me extremely angry


Overall, as I said, I'm cautiously optimistic. This could potentially work out EXTREMELY well for CDPR, both of their franchises (and any future franchises), Epic themselves and possibly even for the entire games industry. However, there are also ways it could go wrong. Considering how my previous favorite company in the industry (Bethesda) went off the deep end after Microtrash bought them, it really does make me nervous, especially since CDPR is the last AAA studio out there that actually seems to have morals (regardless of what some critics claim)... BUT there are also a lot of ways it could end up really awesome. I guess we just have to wait and see.

Im fine with the partnership as long as CDPR and GOG remain independent.

I am curious about this new Witcher game although hope they dont beat a dead horse. I do hope no one from the Netflix series is working on the new game either (well maybe Cavill) since the writing is quite terrible.

I doubt the new entry would be Epic-exclusive although I dont think GOG and Epic exclusive is not out of the question. Epic is likely continuing to gain market share and they will give CDPR a nice deal with a better cut and reduced fees. Given the larger number of Epic-exclusive games, I wouldnt be surprised. Steam seems to have the worst cut offering anyway.

Microsoft's monopolization attempt seems less like monopolization and more like catching up imo. Microsoft has been weaker in the gaming space than their main competitor (Sony) so are buying up studios to get more in-house studios to develop stuff. As long as they dont go overboard micromanaging like EA, the greater budgets may result in better games although that may just be wishful thinking. They also just need alot of content for gamepass so it makes sense they are using their Office money to buy up studios. In the end, it is who makes the better IPs though.

I guess it's just a matter of time now until Unepic is removed from GOG.

No concern here. Unreal Engine is the most popular engine for big-budget games, and CDPR have proven with CP2077 that they're not big enough to do it all in house effectively.