Independent Polish developer CD Projekt Red today revealed new logos for upcoming role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and for the studio itself.

　　The game's logo focuses on the mask of general Eredin, a leader of the titular Wild Hunt. What exactly is the Wild Hunt? Conveniently, CD Projekt Red also shed some light on that today. Here's how the developer goes about describing things:

　　"The Wild Hunt has always been thought to presage war, great plagues and death. Their origin unknown, these ghastly riders instilled fear in the hearts of men and are believed to be able to steal people’s spirits that would later join the cavalcade. They come at night, in the winter and their appearance is always preceded by the aurora borealis.

　　In The Witcher 3, the Wild Hunt are not mere bosses at the end of a corridor. They’re part of the lore, part of the system of folk beliefs, they’re both something that children say stories about to scare each other and an entity that can wipe out entire villages in one night. The Wild Hunt is essential to the whole Witcher universe and in The Witcher 3 it will finally take center stage.

　　The ones who command the Hunt remain a mystery even bigger than the Hunt itself. Their number and purpose are shrouded with mystery, their cold steel however is not--many have witnessed the Hunt’s atrocities, almost none survived to tell the tale."

　　As for CD Projekt Red's new logo, the company is updating it in a major way for the first time since the developer was established in 2002. The new "REDbird" logo is described thusly by CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski:

"We are rebels and rebels are free. Just like birds. The Northern Cardinal, or REDbird, is what we see ourselves in the industry: intrepid, bold and confident; flying high and aiming even higher. The color, cardinal RED, is something that connects it with another bird, a mythological creature close to our cultural roots and heritage—the Rarog, a small firebird believed to bring luck to people. RED stands for energy, the inner fire that drives us; it represents something very close to everyone here in the studio—the creativity and passion we harness from within ourselves to make the best RPGs in the world." CD Projekt Red's new REDbird logo becomes the company's visual identification effectively immediately. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launches February 2015 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. According to CD Projekt Red, there's a chance that the PS4 version will be technically superior to the Xbox One iteration.