- CD Projekt Red has shared a new tech demo for The Witcher 4 at the State of Unreal 2025 showcase
- The demo revealed new cinematic and gameplay footage, which offered a first look at the region of Kovir and protagonist Ciri
- The gameplay footage captured is running on the base PS5 at 60 FPS with ray tracing
Updated June 3, 2025
CD Projekt Red has clarified in a statement to VGC that the footage shown today was a tech demo set in The Witcher 4 world, and wasn't The Witcher 4 gameplay, suggesting that what we saw won't be connected to the narrative.
"This is a tech demo, and a first look at the cutting-edge technology powering The Witcher 4 – but not The Witcher 4 itself," a spokesperson said.
"It showcases the powerful foundation we’re building in close collaboration with Epic Games to push open-world design further than ever before and the core systems and features we’re developing using Unreal Engine 5.
"We’re really proud of this early milestone and excited to give you a sneak peek at some of the cool tech like UAF, Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, ML Deformer and FastGeo Streaming that are helping shape the future of The Witcher."
Original Story:
CD Projekt Red has shared a brand new look at The Witcher 4 with an impressive tech demo.
During the State of Unreal 2025 event today, we were treated to a technical demo that offered an early glimpse into the Unreal Engine 5.6 features that will be in The Witcher 4.
At the start of the livestream, we saw a short cinematic of a group of men being attacked by a monster, before the footage seamlessly transitions into gameplay. We then see Ciri, the game's titular Witcher and playable protagonist, emerging from a cave onto a cliff after investigating the attack and showing off the never-before-seen region of Kovir.
According to CD Projekt Red, the gameplay shown is running on the base PS5 at 60 FPS, with ray tracing enabled, and it looks incredible.
Just like Geralt of Rivia, Ciri also has her own horse companion named Kelpie, and the two of them can be seen riding through the mountains and dense forests of Kovir to the port town of Valdrest.
The town is bustling with crowds of NPCs, some of whom will react to certain instances created by the player, thanks to Unreal Engine's MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling.
For instance, when Ciri knocks into a man carrying apples, she kicks off a chain reaction. She apologizes, and then a child can be seen running forward to steal some apples that fell on the ground, followed by a pig looking to eat them up.
We also see other NPCs interacting with each other and creating their reactive scenes, making the whole town feel alive. It also appears that gameplay will seamlessly transition back into cutscenes when Ciri reaches her destination and starts a conversation, suggesting there'll be no black loading screens in between these moments.
Tools like the new Unreal Animation Framework and Nanite Foliage rendering are being utilized in The Witcher 4 to help deliver an immersive world at 60 FPS without compromising on quality, according to the developer.
"We started our partnership with Epic Games to push open-world game technology forward," said CDPR co-CEO Michał Nowakowski. "To show this early look at the work we’ve been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 FPS on PlayStation 5, is a significant milestone - and a testament of the great cooperation between our teams.
"But we're far from finished. I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership as development of The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues."
The studio also confirmed that while the tech demo was running on a PlayStation console, "the features and technology will be supported across all platforms the game will launch on", including Xbox and PC.
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