The Witcher IV developer CD Projekt RED has revealed that has switched to a console-first approach for development of the highly anticipated sequel, having previously used PC as the main platform for its major titles before scaling down to consoles.
Speaking with Digital Foundry following the impressive tech demo for The Witcher IV during the State of Unreal presentation, CDPR’s VP of Technology, Charles Tremblay, revealed that the studio has set itself the goal of having the open-world title run at 60 FPS with ray tracing on PS5.
When we started the collaboration, we had super high ambitions for this project. We always do PC and we push and then we try to scale down, but then we had so many problems in the past that we tried to see, okay, this time around we really want to be more of a console first development. Then we worked with Unreal and we saw the challenge to realize the ambition that to make what we want, 60 fps on PS5, there would be work.
Related Content – Upcoming PS5 Games 2025: The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon
This is why we started to talk, to figure out what needs to be done with the technology and we also decided, okay, we need to have all those things that need to be developed. Where we go from there, it’s hard to say, but right now we really wanted to focus on what does it mean to make this ambition on a console. We really wanted to aim for 60 fps and not go back to 30 fps.
At this stage, we are perfectly aware that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. This is a tech demo, not the whole gameplay loop is implemented, there’s no combat, there’s a lot of things that don’t work, but still, the ambition is set, so this is where we want to aim for The Witcher 4. It’s too early to say if we manage to nail it, but we’ll work as hard as we can to make it for sure.
The Witcher IV Is currently in development for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, and while release date hasn’t been announced yet, CDPR has said that the fantasy-RPG won’t see the light of day until after 2026. Unlike the previous entries in the critically acclaimed series, The Witcher IV will feature Ciri as its main protagonist, replacing Geralt of Rivia, and the role has been recast with Ciara Berkeley now voicing the character.
[Source – Digital Foundry via WCCFTech]