If there’s one game that many gamers are looking forward to, that’s The Witcher 4. A sequel to the highly acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it’s now in development by Polish outfit CD Projekt.
And like its predecessors, The Witcher 4 looks like it will boast stunning graphics, actually the reveal trailer seen at last year’s Game Awards sure was impressive. The trailer also showcased the game’s protagonist Ciri, who will be taking over from grizzled witcher Geralt in this upcoming instalment of the saga.
Speaking of graphics, though, it seems that CD Projekt will be pulling out all the stops in order to deliver one of the best-looking games of all time, as it was clear to anybody who saw the latest tech demo for the game at the State of Unreal show earlier this month (via Forbes).
CD Projekt had used its own graphics engine for its earlier game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but they’ve switched to Unreal Engine 5 for the next Witcher game.
The video below shows how the company could be delivering truly next-gen graphics with The Witcher 4, with character models, vegetation and lightning looking really impressive here.
The Polish studio pointed to some interesting features during the presentation, such as the more realistic interaction between Ciri and her horse Kelpie, which makes riding seem more natural in the game. There’s also a new graphical technology called “nanite foliage”, which allows the game engine to render ultra-realistic and detailed vegetation fast.
Also, at some point in the demo Ciri enters a market, and it’s clear the NPCs (non-player characters) feel more alive and reactive than in the earlier games. For instance, Ciri bumps into a man carrying a basket with fruit at about 8:55 in the video, almost knocking him over, while fruits drop to the ground…
Of course, the thing is that this is only a tech demo and not actual gameplay, and let’s remember that The Witcher 3 also got some very impressive tech demos before release too. In fact, the game was controversial (amongst other things) due to the graphical downgrade seen in the release version of the game vs previews (which looked quite a bit better).
This time, though, things might be different as by CD Projekt’s own admission they are focusing on the console versions of the game first instead of creating for PC first and then downscaling that version, which had been their modus operandi until this point. Actually, the stunning tech demo was running on a standard PS5 console at 60 fps. CD Projekt is targeting this frame rate for the console versions of the game although the Polish studio has admitted it will be hard for them to reach this frame rate on Microsoft’s Xbox Series S console, which has weaker hardware than its sibling the Xbox Series X (via wccftech.com).
No release date has been revealed for The Witcher 4 yet.
There’s also the matter of the game’s release date, with many gamers wondering when will they be able to play CD Projekt’s open-world, sword and sorcery RPG game? It seems those wanting to get their hands on the game will have to wait a while, as The Witcher 4 won’t be coming until at least 2027. Piotr Nielubowicz of CD Projekt (who’s the company’s chief financial officer or CFO) has ruled an earlier release for the game.
“All we could share now to give more visibility to investors is that the game will not be launched within the time frame of the first target for the incentive program, which ends December 31, 2026”, said Nielubowicz, referring to the company’s motivational program for top managers. So maybe we can expect a release date no later than late 2027 in a best case scenario then…
It does make sense, though, that a game of this ambition and scope will take time to develop, but at least gamers will get to enjoy more previews and trailers in the meantime, as this clearly is one of the most eagerly anticipated games of all time no doubt.