Rebel Wolves, a new studio filled with designers who previously worked on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 at CD Projekt Red, has formally revealed and titled its debut open-world vampire RPG after some teasers last year. The Blood of Dawnwalker is the "first chapter" in a new "role-playing saga," and it looks good so far.
Given its pedigree, some people have understandably drawn comparisons to The Witcher 4 on the heels of its own full reveal, with some folks transparently looking to dismiss or divide. The devs who are still at CDPR working on games like The Witcher 4 aren't having any of it, instead stressing the mutual support between them and Rebel Wolves.
"Anyone trying to pit these games against one another is doing the devil's work," said The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 quest designer Patrick Mills. "These teams have a long history together, we hang out together, we play games together, our group chats are full of kudos to the respective teams. Nothing but love here."
- Former The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs reveal new Vampiric dark fantasy open-world RPG that's "the first chapter" of a "brand new role-playing saga"
- The Witcher 3 director says he left CDPR to make his own open-world vampire game because "those rules of RPGs" can be bent and "a smaller team is capable of doing more"
In a follow-up post, Mills zeroed in on one of the louder minorities in this needless debate: "Culture war gonna culture war but these games have shared lineage and shared values." CDPR senior communication manager Pawel Burza chimed in with a simple question: why not both?
The Witcher 4 narrative director Philipp Weber echoed Mills' point in his own post, again sharing a tweet from user Michael Loda. "We joked today with [Dawnwalker creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz] about how the eyes in darkness for both our trailers used references from Midnight Mass to sell the idea early on," Weber said. "Lots of devs between our two games and studios are friends, and we like to see our friends succeed!"
Tomaszkiewicz also waded into the discussion, agreeing with Loda's post arguing that "both [games] can exist together. One doesn't mean the other is dead. It's not a competition. Have some respect." Likewise, Rebel Wolves marketing lead Paweł Panasiuk shared Loda's post and added: "Thank you for this."
The correct response to these loosely parallel RPGs is, of course, the same response to getting two cakes on your birthday – two cakes we know just next to nothing about, mind. Just enjoy having two cakes! And ignore anyone who says you have to pick one because they're too angry to enjoy two cakes.
