The Witcher 4 is taking shape as CD Projekt Red’s next big game, with Ciri stepping into the spotlight as the main character. After ten years since The Witcher 3 changed gaming with its vast world and memorable characters, fans are eager for this new chapter.
Recent footage from a tech demo at the State of Unreal 2025 event gives us our first real look at what to expect. The demo shows Ciri, Geralt’s adopted daughter, exploring a new region called Kovir. This area has never appeared in the games before, featuring a port town called Valdrest (also known as Lan Exeter).
CD Projekt Red isn’t making this game alone. They’ve partnered with Epic Games to use Unreal Engine 5.6, moving away from their own REDengine that powered previous Witcher games. This partnership aims to create what Michał Nowakowski, Joint-CEO of CD Projekt Red, calls “the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game ever.”
The tech demo impresses with its visual quality, running at 60 frames per second with ray tracing on a standard PlayStation 5. It showcases several technical features that will shape the final game:
- ML Deformer for realistic muscle movements on characters and animals
- Fast Geometry Streaming for smooth world loading
- Nanite Foliage for detailed plants and trees
- Animation and AI systems that allowed the demo to show 300 individually animated characters in a market scene
Similar Posts
Full production on The Witcher 4 (codenamed “Project Polaris”) started in November 2024, with more than 400 developers now working on it. Despite this progress, fans will need patience. CD Projekt Red has confirmed the game won’t release before 2026, with 2027 being the earliest possible launch window.
Some fans remain cautious despite the impressive demo. The rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red’s previous game, has made many wary of tech demos that look better than final products. As one YouTube commenter noted: “It’s crazy how many people forgot they released videos of Witcher 3 ages before it launched just like this, of it looking 100 times better than what we got in the end.”
The change in protagonist from Geralt to Ciri has sparked some debate, though Doug Cockle, Geralt’s voice actor, supports the decision: “I always thought that continuing the Saga, but shifting to Ciri would be a really, really interesting move.”
For fans of Gwent, the popular card game within The Witcher 3, there’s good news – the tech demo confirms it will return in The Witcher 4.
The Witcher 4 is planned as the first game in a new trilogy, alongside other Witcher projects like a remake of the original 2007 game. While we wait for 2027, at least we know Ciri’s journey on horseback with Kelpie continues, and a new chapter in The Witcher saga is taking shape.