At State of Unreal 2025, a few days before Summer Game Fest, The Witcher 4 wowed with an impressive technical demo, running on Unreal Engine 5, apparently on PS5 at 60 FPS, with Raytracing included. However, it all turned out to be too good to be true, and was in fact not a gameplay presentation. That being said, in an interview with experts Digital Foundry, the studio wanted to be reassuring about its ambitions for its next title, within the technical limits of what is possible.
Refining Ciri's Techniques in The Witcher 4
Following The Witcher 4's tech demo, many fear that CD Projekt RED will fall back into the same old hype surrounding Cyberpunk 2077, with promises that were too good to be true. During an interview with analysts at Digital Foundry, the Polish studio wanted to be reassuring on this point. In any case, when it comes to performance, the team wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Thus, The Witcher 4 is reportedly targeting the sacrosanct 60 FPS on consoles... at least on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
To do this, CD Projekt RED explains that it will first optimize The Witcher 4 for consoles to ensure that the target frame rate is stable. Unfortunately, the nasty little kikimore that is the Xbox Series S may once again pose a problem in this area. According to the Polish studio, and as one might unfortunately suspect, "Maintaining 60 FPS on Series S is likely to be extremely difficult. It's something that will require a lot of work and thought from us."
Regarding PC, the fact that CD Projekt RED wants to optimize The Witcher 4 for consoles first could be a worrying sign. Given the infinite possibilities of PC configurations, the sequel to The Witcher 3 could have performance issues depending on each individual's hardware. Naturally, it's far too early to say, since The Witcher 4 isn't due out until 2027/2028. Fingers crossed, however, that the Polish studio will fine-tune everything to bring the famous franchise and Ciri back to the best possible shape.
Source: Digital Foundry on YouTube
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