CD Projekt Red's latest showcase at the 2025 State of Unreal didn't give us playable Witcher 4 content, but it may have done something just as important, proving that they're on the right path after the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
The studio revealed a tech demo made with Unreal Engine 5.6, focused on Ciri. While it wasn't actual gameplay, it gave a good glimpse of the game's direction.
The demo starts with Ciri riding across the snowy lands of Kovir, a region only hinted at before in Witcher stories. She gets on her new horse Kelpie and enters a richly detailed port town alive with responsive NPCs and moving elements.
How Does The Witcher 4 World Feel in the Demo?
Street vendors, sassy guards, and a kid swiping dropped food all come to life with smooth animation and immersive framing.
The transitions between player control and cinematic scenes were smooth and showed the engine's ability to blend story and gameplay without interruptions. It was, visually and mechanically, miles ahead of what we saw during Cyberpunk's earliest promos.
But here's the catch — CDPR clarified almost immediately after the presentation that this was not the game. It was a tech slice designed to highlight Unreal Engine 5's strengths and the foundational tools being used for Witcher 4.
This wasn't a mission or side quest, nor a combat loop, but a curated snapshot of a potential world, reportedly running at 60 FPS with ray tracing on a base PS5. On one hand, it's hard not to get excited when you see that level of detail and interactivity.
The forest foliage, dubbed "nanite trees," renders individual needles on branches. Towns are dense and populated with characters who respond naturally to the player's presence. Even the horse's muscle movement is animated.
Is The Witcher 4 Overhyped?
On the other hand, longtime fans remember the pre-launch footage of Cyberpunk 2077, which also looked incredible… until it didn't.
The game's release was plagued by feature gaps, last-gen console performance issues, and a blow to player trust that CDPR has spent years repairing. It's clear that CDPR doesn't want to repeat those mistakes.
It's been repeatedly stated that the demo doesn't show the full game, with Witcher 4 confirmed to release no earlier than 2027. Speculation online about a 2026 release has been shut down by both insiders and CDPR themselves. Even the term "vertical slice" has been thrown around to temper expectations.
What Is This Demo Really Trying to Showcase?
In reality, it's a tech demo made with Epic to show new features like better asset streaming, updated animation systems, and AI behavior trees that CDPR says will help them focus on content instead of engine work.
The positive here is that it's more straightforward than Cyberpunk was early on. Although it featured a controller and looked like gameplay, CDPR made sure to clear up any confusion by explaining what it really was right from the start. It's definitely marketing, no doubt about it, but they're honest about what it is.
The demo makes it clear that CDPR has a strong creative vision. The new Witcher game is being developed with more reliable, up-to-date technology, starring Ciri as the main playable character. It's still unclear how the story follows The Witcher 3's endings or the extent of the RPG features, though the ambition is pretty obvious.
So, no, this demo doesn't confirm a clean launch. But it does suggest that CDPR understands what went wrong last time and is building Witcher 4 with a greater focus on pacing, performance, and polish. If they pull that off, they could finally break their launch curse or at least dodge it this time.
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