The Witcher 4 Targets PS5 First: CD Projekt Red Prioritizes Console Over PC for the First Time

The Witcher 4 has been confirmed with Ciri being the main protagonist, Witcher 4 takes place right after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. CD Projekt Red has been brewing something amazing for the fans but it seems like console fans might be in favor this time.

A big change has been confirmed by CD Projekt Red: The Witcher 4 will be built with consoles in mind, with the PlayStation 5 getting more attention than the usual PC platform. After the impressive Witcher 4 tech demo at this month's State of Unreal presentation, Digital Foundry did a deep-dive interview where they talked about their new direction and the technical challenges they will face.

Charles Tremblay, VP of Technology at CD Projekt Red, says that the studio's choice to focus on consoles first, specifically the PS5, is a smart move that will help them avoid the problems they had with previous projects, like the notorious Cyberpunk 2077 launch problems.

"We always push and do PC, and then we try to scale down." "But then we had so many problems in the past that we decided this time we really want to focus on consoles first," Tremblay said.

The studio wants to reach 60 frames per second on PS5 with hardware-accelerated ray tracing. They say this is a more realistic way to develop than going from high-end PC specs to lower-end ones. This move has a lot to do with their work with Epic Games on Unreal Engine 5. CD Projekt Red is pushing for high performance without sacrificing anything, especially not setting the default frame rate to 30fps.

"Our main goal was to get to 60 frames per second and not go back to 30." Right now, we're well aware that we still have a lot of work to do. The gameplay loop isn't there yet, there's no combat, and a lot of other things don't work. This is just a tech demo, but the goal is clear.

Even though it looks like the PlayStation 5 is the best platform, Tremblay wasn't shy about talking about how hard it would be to make Microsoft's Xbox Series S perform as well. Even though work on the Series S hasn't started yet, Tremblay made it clear that getting to 60fps on that hardware will be "extremely challenging."

"I wish we had worked on that more, but we didn't." That's why this is the next thing we're looking at. On the Xbox Series S, 60 frames per second will definitely be very hard. We need to figure this out.

For a long time, CD Projekt Red has made games with high-end PC in mind, but the results haven't always been good on consoles. After Cyberpunk 2077 came out on base consoles in 2020, it got a lot of bad reviews and performance problems that didn't go away for years. It looks like this new approach is a direct result of the lessons learned.

By focusing on console optimization, CD Projekt Red hopes to make the game better and make sure that The Witcher 4, its next big RPG, gives players a better, more consistent experience right from the start, especially on consoles.

But the road ahead isn't even close to being paved. The studio says that even though the Witcher 4 demo had great graphics, a lot of the game's main gameplay hasn't been put in yet. There are no combat systems or fully finished mechanics yet; it's still just a tech demo. But the goal is clear even at this early stage.

"What's next?" It's not clear. But we really wanted to focus on what it takes to make this goal come true on consoles right now.

PC players may feel a little left out by this change, but CD Projekt Red hasn't given up on them—the game will still come out on PC—it's clear that PlayStation 5 users will be the ones who benefit the most from this new direction.

It's still not clear if CDPR will be able to keep things equal for Xbox Series S owners. The studio hasn't ruled out the possibility that the Series S version will be locked at 30fps if compromises have to be made.

The game won't come out for years, but CDPR's early openness shows how they plan to learn from past mistakes and push the limits of next-gen RPG development, which is a good sign.

It would be great if The Witcher 4 could hit 60FPS with ray tracing on consoles without making a lot of sacrifices. Fans expect a deep, immersive world, so this could really be the studio's comeback.