CD Projekt on Witcher 4 Tech Demo Accuracy

The Witcher 4 tech demo provided a breathtaking glimpse of what CD Projekt Red maintains is precisely that—a technical demonstration. As IGN has clarified, it does not represent actual Witcher 4 gameplay. Still, it's difficult not to watch this Unreal Engine 5 demo set in the Witcher universe and speculate whether it offers clues about the final game, which remains years away from launch.

Captured on PlayStation 5 running at 60 frames per second, the tech demo follows Ciri as she investigates the newly revealed region of Kovir while on a monster-hunting contract (CD Projekt confirmed Kovir will be a playable area in The Witcher 4).

The demo showcases an extraordinary level of detail, with seamless animations exceeding what we've seen on current-generation consoles. Both Ciri and her horse Kelpie display remarkably natural movements and interactions with each other, NPCs, and the environment as they travel through Kovir's mountains to the lively port town of Valdrest. At one point, CD Projekt increased the NPC count in a market scene to 300 individually animated characters. The presentation concluded with a first view of Lan Exeter, the winter capital and a key port city in Kovir.

CD Projekt understands better than most what happens when expectations for an upcoming game aren't met. Recall the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, which required years of recovery efforts. This naturally raises the question: does The Witcher 4 tech demo accurately reflect how the final game will appear?

We posed this question to Kajetan Kapuściński, Cinematic Director at CD Projekt, during Epic's State of Unreal 2025 event. His response was cautiously diplomatic, as expected from a developer working on a game not due until 2027 at the earliest, though he did confirm the demo "demonstrates our ambition."

Here are Kapuściński's complete remarks:

“What you've seen today is a technical demonstration powered by Unreal Engine 5, a collaborative project with the Epic team. We designed this demo so both companies could develop technology that will eventually power Witcher 4.

“This isn't direct gameplay from The Witcher 4. Rather, it illustrates our ambitions, the advanced technology we're co-developing to make the game feasible, plus our artistic direction and conceptual approach.

“However, everything shown remains subject to change. This is merely a glimpse of our current progress. We wanted to share this publicly to showcase our collaborative work. Now, equipped with these tools and capabilities, we're actively developing the game.”

In the same interview, we asked Wyeth Johnson, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Epic Games, whether the demo's performance (60fps with ray tracing on a base PS5) represents what players can expect in the final PS5 version.

“Absolutely. We must be transparent here," he responded. “The technology we're developing must directly meet player expectations, and gamers across all hardware configurations demand superb 60 frames-per-second gameplay.”

Maintaining 60fps with ray tracing in a vast open-world title like The Witcher 4 on a base PS5 exceeds typical current-gen console performance. However, Johnson noted that collaborating with CD Projekt on the tech demo “enabled us to aggressively pursue dramatically higher performance while preserving exceptional visual fidelity.”

This clearly surpasses expectations for the five-year-old PS5. Gamers have grown accustomed to believing that ray tracing on PlayStation or Xbox means settling for 30 frames per second. But Johnson maintained that console hardware “remains impressive” with additional performance still untapped.

“Success depends on intelligently leveraging that hardware,” he explained. “Many of our improvements involve parallelizing processes that typically occur sequentially. This approach more fully utilizes hardware capabilities.

“Our new Unreal animation framework and rapid geometry streaming—enabling seamless traversal at any speed—are designed for parallel processing, making hardware optimization more accessible. These advancements are now fundamental to Unreal Engine's future.

“It takes time to uncover and utilize all the sophisticated capabilities built into the hardware by manufacturers. You identify constraints, locate bottlenecks, and optimize.

“The progress is striking; compared to earlier demos, we're achieving two-to-tenfold performance gains with nearly identical visuals. This comes from identifying edge cases, implementing improvements, and integrating them into Unreal's core functionality. Exceptional developers like CD Projekt Red can then build upon this foundation.”

The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo Screenshots

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Anticipation for The Witcher 4 is immense, with fans eager for concrete details. Kapuściński remained guarded but offered some intriguing hints:

“By examining the demo's progression, you can identify elements indicating our intended direction and the possibilities emerging from our collaboration. For instance, the forest vista featuring massive woodlands now utilizes Nanite foliage. Rendering such vast quantities of highly detailed trees and vegetation unlocks new creative opportunities.

“Similarly, the Unreal animation framework and optimizations enabling numerous NPCs and moving characters on screen matter greatly. Another vista displays over 300 animated actors—something we require. Connecting these dots reveals our trajectory.”

So, vast, intricately detailed forests and massive, animated crowds are confirmed for The Witcher 4!

A major question concerns target platforms. This PS5 demo suggests a cross-generational release spanning current and next-gen consoles (PS6 and future Xbox). If it targets current-gen hardware, will it also run on the less powerful Xbox Series S? Remember that Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI is also planned for current-gen consoles including Series S. If GTA VI can run on Microsoft's budget console, perhaps The Witcher 4 can as well.

CD Projekt has suggested The Witcher 4 won't release before 2027, so definitive answers may require patience.