The Witcher 4: A new gameplay video has been released

During Epic Games’ State of Unreal presentation, studio CD Projekt Red showed off a tech demo of the next installment in The Witcher series. The demo took place on the PlayStation 5 console with ray tracing enabled and was built on the Unreal Engine 5.

Although not officially confirmed to be gameplay, the demo showed off what the game was potentially capable of on the standard PS5. In the video, you could see Ciri – the protagonist of the new installment – exploring a city in the region of Covir, which the developers have confirmed will be one of the key settings in The Witcher 4. Also in the demo, Ciri interacts with NPCs, and the scene itself demonstrates the engine’s ability to render complex locations with less stress on the system.

Particular attention was paid to the rich marketplace with its many objects and details, emphasizing Unreal Engine 5’s ability to create richer and more vibrant worlds.

The Witcher 4 demo also shows off the engine’s ability to render complex locations with less system load.

The updated animation core was also introduced – in the example, Ciri mounts a horse, and the animation adapts to the direction of approach, creating natural and unique movements every time.

“We’ve started working with Epic Games to take open-world technology to the next level,” said Michael Nowakowski, co-CEO of CD Projekt Red.”Showing this early look at the game running at 60 FPS on PS5 is an important milestone and a testament to the great work our teams are doing together. But there’s still a lot of work ahead. I look forward to seeing more technological advances as we develop The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5.

The first trailer for The Witcher 4 was unveiled at The Game Awards in December 2024. It confirmed that the game will focus on Ciri, who previously appeared in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

In an interview with VGC, narrative director Philippe Weber acknowledged that the change in the protagonist could cause discontent among some fans. He said that the team understands how much players love Geralt, and is determined to prove that the choice to use Ciri was justified.

“We understood that it could be a controversial decision, because in all three previous installments, Geralt was the main character, and people love playing as him,” Weber said.”I love Geralt too, so if someone thinks they’d like to continue playing as him, that’s a valid opinion. We want to show that you can do a lot of interesting things with Ciri, and this decision was made a long time ago, not yesterday.”

The Witcher 4’s release date has yet to be named, but interest in the game is growing with each new reveal.