CD Projekt RED has revealed a new look at The Witcher IV, and it’s one fans won’t want to miss. During State of Unreal 2025, the studio showed off a brand-new cinematic trailer and an in-depth technical demo, both powered by Unreal Engine 5. What’s most impressive? The whole thing runs on a regular PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second, with ray tracing enabled.
This presentation of The Witcher IV kicked off Unreal Fest 2025, with CDPR appearing on stage alongside Epic Games. The tech demo of The Witcher IV wasn’t just flashy, it was a detailed breakdown of how new tools and features in Unreal Engine 5 are being used to build the game’s open world. And this time, it’s Ciri who takes the lead.
The Witcher IV demo brings Kovir to life with next-gen detail
The Witcher IV demo took players to Kovir, a region that hasn’t appeared in the games before. It followed Ciri and her horse Kelpie as they travelled through snowy mountains and dense forests, heading towards the port town of Valdrest. The world felt rich and alive—every environment packed with small details, running in real-time.
Since forming a partnership in 2022, CD Projekt RED and Epic Games have been working closely to expand what Unreal Engine 5 can do, especially for open-world games. The tech demo proved just how far that work has come. Several new features made an appearance, all focused on keeping performance strong while pushing visual quality.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what was shown:
- Unreal Animation Framework – brings smoother, more lifelike character movement.
- FastGeo Streaming – helps areas load in faster with no lag or stutter.
- Nanite Foliage – fills the world with detailed trees, grass, and plants without lowering performance.
- MetaHuman & ML Deformer – allows for realistic facial expressions and body animations.
- Mass system – handles crowds and large groups of characters efficiently.
All these tools are now available to Unreal Engine developers with the release of version 5.6, making it easier for other studios to build large, immersive worlds without cutting back on quality.
Joint CEO of CD Projekt RED, Michal Nowakowski, said:
“To show this early look of The Witcher IV at the work we’ve been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 [frames per second] on PlayStation 5 is a significant milestone… But we’re far from finished.”
Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney added:
“CD Projekt RED is one of the industry’s best open-world game studios… They’re the perfect partner to help us develop new world-building features.”
The Witcher IV is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. There’s no official release date just yet, but this glimpse shows the team is aiming high.
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