during the event State of Unreal 2025, , Epic Games and CD Projekt RED They revealed a Impressive technical demo. This offers a glimpse into the visual future of The Witcher 4. Although they made it clear that It’s not the end game, what is shown has already ignited expectations. This allows for a vast open world, photorealistic graphics, and solid performance of 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 Base, , with ray tracing activated.
The Witcher 4: Unreal Engine takes another level
the demo of The Witcher 4, built on Unreal Engine 5.6, was designed to show what you will be able to The next installment of the saga. The Epic graphics engine continues to evolve, and now has tools like:
- Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin, which allows a fast loading of extensive environments without interruptions.
- Nanite Foliage, to render ultra dense vegetation with fidelity and memory efficiency.
- ml deformer, which improves real-time muscle and facial animations and deformations.
All this was put to the test in the demo, which managed to maintain stable performance even with 300 individually animated NPCs in the same scene.
Ciri takes the leading role: New scenario, New Era
The big surprise was not just technical. This demo follows Ciri, who will it be? The new protagonist of The Witcher 4, on his journey through Kovir, a region never seen before in the video games of the saga. On horseback from his mare Kelpie, go through mountains, forests and finish in the bustling port of VALDREST, winter capital of the kingdom.
“This technical demo happens in Kovir, which will make its first appearance in the franchise with The Witcher 4,” confirmed CD Projekt.
“We see Ciri cross natural and urban landscapes with a level of detail and scale never before achieved in the series.”
The decision to give Ciri the main role was not improvised. According to the executive producer Malgorzata Mitrega, it was something that had to happen:
“It was always her. From the books we knew it was the natural path. We already said goodbye to Geralt. This is her story now.”
You will have to be patient with The Witcher 4
Although the demo was spectacular, The Witcher 4 is still far from hitting the market. CD Projekt has indicated that the game will not be ready before 2027, at least. This rules out a release for 2025 or 2026, and opens the door to it being delayed until 2028. And in an industry where calendars are rarely met, it wouldn’t be a surprise.
Despite this, the fact that the demo runs in A standard PS5, and not on new generation hardware, suggests that The Witcher 4 will be an intergenerational game. the rumors of a PS6 and a new Xbox for 2027 They pointed to a possible Next-Gen exclusivity, but this demo destroys that idea… at least for now.
a new protagonist, but the same ambition
CD Projekt had already confirmed that The Witcher 4 will start a new trilogy. Although he leaves Geralt behind, he maintains the essence of the saga: a deep narrative, decisions with consequences, and a world that breathes for itself.
The graphic and technical jump, courtesy of Unreal Engine 5, it seems prepared to mark a before and after, not only for the saga, but for the Western RPG in general.
