When CD Projekt RED (CDPR) released its sexy Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, dedicated gamers picked apart every frame and discovered hidden messages. Among them was the tease that more information on a “fully open-world game with an intense story” would be coming on February 5. Speculation that The Witcher 3 would be announced quickly spread.

It turns out the rumors were true. The Witcher 3 has been officially announced in the latest issue of Game Informer.

According to the write-up, the game world will be even larger than Skyrim, and the story will not be split into chapters. Instead, gamers will get free reign to wander the massive world slaying monsters, getting involved with the local politics, and crafting weapons and armor.

The screenshots of the game are supposedly running on development hardware. If true, it seems clear that The Witcher 3 will not be appearing on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Though CDPR did not explicitly say the game will be coming to next-gen consoles (such as the PlayStation 4), but it did say the game will appear on all “top-of-the-line” consoles, which is almost certainly code for next-gen consoles. Also, the game will be built on the recently announced REDEngine 3, a “next-gen ready” game engine specifically created for open-world RPGs.

The video feature below reveals a bit about why CDPR chose to go the open-world route, and what may lie in store for Geralt: