Epic Games and CD Projekt have shown off a stunning tech demo of The Witcher 4 running on Unreal Engine 5.
Epic’s State of Unreal 2025 event revealed a technical demo showing off "some of the cutting-edge tech powering the new Witcher saga." Epic stressed this was not The Witcher 4 itself, rather a tech demo only, but it does give us a good idea of what to expect from the game.
“When we launched Unreal Engine 5 three years ago, CD Projekt Red announced they would collaborate with us to bring large open-world support to the engine,” Epic said. “Together at the State of Unreal, we revealed what we’ve been working on.”
The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 tech demo follows Ciri as she explores the never-before-seen region of Kovir in the midst of a monster contract (CD Projekt confirmed Kovir is a playable area in The Witcher 4). The demo provides an early look at a number of Unreal Engine 5.6’s new open-world features in action. It's all running on base PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with raytracing, Epic said, including the new, faster way to load open worlds via the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin. At one point in the demo, CD Projekt upped the NPC count in the market scene to 300 individually animated characters. The showcase ended with a first look at Lan Exeter, the winter capital and a major port city in Kovir.
Here’s the official blurb from Epic:
As Ciri explores the bustling market of Valdrest, we see how 5.6 handles busy scenes full of high-fidelity characters and visual effects like ML Deformer. The tech demo also showcases Nanite Foliage — which provides a fast and memory efficient way to achieve gorgeous foliage density and fidelity, slated for release in UE 5.7.
And here's a note from CD Projekt:
The tech demo takes place in the region of Kovir — which will make its very first appearance in the video game series in The Witcher 4. The presentation followed main protagonist Ciri — along with her horse Kelpie — as she made her way through the rugged mountains and dense forests of Kovir to the bustling port town of Valdrest.
While this tech demo offers a tantalizing glimpse into the visual experience we can expect from The Witcher 4, the game itself is still years away from launch. CD Projekt has indicated The Witcher 4 won’t be out until 2027 at the earliest.
That rules out a launch this year, which no-one really expected, a launch next year, which some had hoped for, and sets 2027 as the earliest The Witcher 4 will come out. But that’s if everything goes to plan, and as we all know, the video game industry has a hard time with its plans. Could The Witcher 4 end up being a 2028 game? It sounds possible.
Some had wondered whether The Witcher 4 might end up exclusive to the next generation of consoles (Sony is no-doubt working on its PlayStation 6 plans as we speak, and Microsoft is rumored to be targeting a 2027 release for its Xbox Series X successor and an Xbox handheld). This Unreal tech demo suggests The Witcher 4 is a cross-gen game, as Cyberpunk 2077 was when it was released in December 2020.
Here's what we know: The Witcher 4 is the first in a new trilogy of Witcher games set after the events of The Witcher 3. But rather than star Geralt as protagonist, Ciri is the main character this time around.
Speaking exclusively to IGN ahead of The Witcher 4 reveal, executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga said Ciri was “the very organic, logical choice.”
“It was always about her, starting from Saga when you read it in the books. She's an amazing, layered character. And of course, as a protagonist we said goodbye to Geralt previously. So this is a continuation. I guess for all of us it’s like she was meant to be. That was always her.”
In January, speaking to IGN as part of a wider interview on Netflix’s upcoming animated film, The Witcher: Sirens of The Deep, Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle backed CD Projekt’s decision, even though it sees Geralt take a back seat.
“I'm really excited,” he said. “I think it's a really good move. I mean, I always thought that continuing the Saga, but shifting to Ciri would be a really, really interesting move for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of things that happen in the books, which I don't want to give away because people, I want people to go read. So yeah, I think it's really exciting. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what they've done.”
We’ve got plenty more exclusive content on The Witcher 4, including a trailer breakdown and an interview with CD Projekt where the developer explains why The Witcher 4 will avoid a Cyberpunk 2077-style launch disaster.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
