Revealed last December, CD Projekt Red has been consistently releasing new information on The Witcher 4 and now it has just lifted the curtain from it with a jaw-dropping Unreal Engine 5 tech demo and it looks nothing short of extra ordinary. From a stunning new region to next-gen NPC behaviour and crowd systems, everything showcased pushes the series into bold and ambitious territory. As previously confirmed, Ciri takes the lead this time, backed by massive engine upgrades that redefine world-building, animation, and frame rate performance.
So, without any delays, here are all the details we learned at State of Unreal 2025.
Narrative And Reactive World Design
The narrative and world design glimpses from the demo paint an intriguing setting for the upcoming sequel. Valdrest, the featured port town, is filled with gossip, shady characters, and potential quest hooks, hinting at a hub-based storytelling structure rich with depth and exploration. One quest has Ciri hunting a deadly manticore, but beneath that lies talk of smuggling and other morally grey topics and this suggests a layered, multi-threaded quest system that could weave in political intrigue and tough choices. More importantly, the world feels reactive, not just a backdrop, but an engaging sandbox where dynamic events unfold naturally, rather than relying solely on scripted sequences, something we have already seen in The Witcher 3.
Standard PS5 Footage
Now let’s shift our focus to the technical details of the demo. Right at the beginning of the presentation, it was reconfirmed that The Witcher 4 is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, with CD Projekt Red working closely alongside Epic Games. Then came the big moment, in-engine footage from a tech demo, running at 60 FPS with ray tracing on a standard PlayStation 5. And honestly? It looks good. Sure, it’s just a tech demo and not necessarily representative of the final product, we get that, but the fact that something this visually impressive is running on a base PS5? That’s borderline insane.
Joint-CEO of CD PROJEKT RED, Michał Nowakowski had the following to say on the matter, “We started our partnership with Epic Games to push open-world game technology forward. To show this early look at the work we’ve been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 FPS on PlayStation 5, is a significant milestone — and a testament of the great cooperation between our teams. But we’re far from finished. I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership as development of The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues.”
Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games added that, “CD PROJEKT RED is one of the industry’s best open-world game studios, and we’re grateful that they’re working with us to push Unreal Engine forward with The Witcher 4. They are the perfect partner to help us develop new world-building features that we can share with all Unreal Engine developers.”
New Region
CD Projekt Red also reconfirmed that players will step into the boots of Ciri, now a fully realized Witcher and seasoned hunter. The demo showcased a brand-new region: Kovir. The aspects of a lush, serene open-world environments are something we have seen in The Witcher 3 but in The Witcher 4, everything looks super detailed. With the region’s dense forests, hills, and amazing vistas, Kovir looks breathtakingly beautiful, almost peaceful. But knowing the world of The Witcher, danger is never far behind and those silent peaks are almost certainly hiding more than just stunning views.
Meet Ciri’s companion
Missing Roach already? Well, don’t get too nostalgic, Geralt’s trusty steed isn’t making a return so far. Instead, Ciri’s horse is named Kelpie, a nod to her unique journey and a spiritual successor to Roach. But what’s truly impressive is how Unreal Engine 5 takes horse movement technology to the next level. Thanks to multi-character motion matching, Ciri can mount Kelpie from any angle or speed with seamless and realistic animations. Combine that with root motion and machine-learned deformations, and you get incredibly lifelike riding physics, complete with accurate muscle movement, all without a dip in frame rate performance and processes. This is going to be a next-gen horse, alright!
World Detail
Now let’s talk about how Unreal Engine 5 handles world-building, and it’s seriously impressive. One of the standout features is the new Nanite Foliage System, which allows artists to craft ultra-dense, fully 3D foliage with complete lighting and shadow support. This by the way isn’t just a visual boost; it replaces the good old LOD systems with adaptive voxel-based rendering, delivering both higher visual fidelity and better performance.
Instead of relying on flat 2D alpha cards, every leaf and pine is now rendered in full 3D using voxel-based adaptive representation. The result? Foliage that interacts far more naturally with lighting and shadow, adding a layer of realism to every forest in the game’s open world.
Improved NPCs
NPC behaviours in The Witcher 3 were one of the game’s few weaker aspects, understandable, given it’s a nearly decade old title. But The Witcher 4 looks set to raise the bar significantly when it comes to NPC behaviour and realism. One look at Valdrest and its clear CD Projekt Red is aiming for a far more immersive population system, NPCs now react dynamically to the player, sparking believable chain effects throughout the crowd. This leap is powered by technologies like MetaHuman, Smart Objects, and Chaos Cloth, ensuring characters not only look more real but behave naturally. The goal? To minimize the gap between main characters and background NPCs, visually and behaviourally, and make the world feel truly immersive.
Crowd System
And then there’s the crowd system, a massive leap forward from what we saw back in games like Assassin’s Creed Unity. In The Witcher 4 tech demo, CD Projekt Red showcased over 300 individually animated NPCs on screen at once, each interacting and moving with fluidity. This is powered by a brand-new Unreal Animation Framework that keeps everything running smoothly at a stable 60 FPS, with enough headroom left for core gameplay systems to operate without many issues. It’s a staggering level of technical achievement that promises cities and towns that feel genuinely alive and reactive. Whether the final game will feature this many NPCs remains to be seen, but the sheer potential on display is enough to get us excited.
Better Streaming System
Remember the occluder issues in The Witcher 3, where objects would sometimes pop into view right in front of the player? Say goodbye to that. Thanks to major improvements in world streaming, assets now load in faster. While CD Projekt Red didn’t explicitly mention loading screens, the demo’s seamless transitions make it clear, The Witcher 4 is pushing hard toward a fully immersive, uninterrupted open world.
Bonus Reveal
And right at the end, we got a brief reveal at Lan Exeter which is a major port city and Kovir’s winter capital. The demo closed with a cinematic shot of Ciri on horseback, gazing out over the horizon as she calmly says, “Onward, Kelpie. We’ve work to do.” It’s a short moment, but it feels loaded with meaning, likely hinting at the beginning of a major narrative arc and it’s the kind of tease that leaves you wanting more.
The Witcher 4 doesn’t have a release window or platforms, but it’s likely coming to PS5, Xbox and PC.
