CD Projekt Pink Remains Mysterious on The Witcher 4’s Compatibility with Next-Gen Consoles, Including Xbox Series S

Following the captivating, high-fidelity initial trailer for The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards last week, there has been considerable concern among fans regarding whether it will indeed be operational on next-gen consoles. This anxiety was fueled by the details in the trailer and a brief official blog post, which mentioned that the trailer was pre-rendered using a mysterious, “unannounced Nvidia GeForce RTX” graphics card, “utilizing assets and models from the game itself” – hinting at at least some degree of correlation between what was shown and the potential final game visuals.

Developer CD Projekt Red has a known history of challenges with previous consoles, notably with the last-generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which caused significant issues for Cyberpunk 2077’s launch. The studio ultimately phased out support for these consoles with the release of the Phantom Liberty expansion in 2023.

In a recent interview with CDPR this week, Eurogamer inquired if the studio could assure console users that they would be able to run it properly – specifically on an Xbox Series S, which is still required for any game released on the Xbox Series X. The developers appeared somewhat reserved in their response.

“You know, first off, let me say: this is not the beginning of a marketing campaign,” stated The Witcher 4’s game director, Sebastian Kalemba, regarding the trailer. “Our main goal was to reveal and announce to everyone that Ciri is the primary character; it’s The Witcher 4; and she has evolved; and she’s on The Path, for sure, right?”

Rather than directly addressing worries about specific consoles, Kalemba elaborated a little further but only confirmed it would likely be available on fundamental platforms more broadly.

“The second aspect is that, yes, we are currently developing a new engine in collaboration with Epic’s engineers, which has resulted in great synergy and cooperation between us. We are presently working with Unreal Engine 5 along with our customized version. Of course, we wish to support all platforms – that includes PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, right? – but I cannot provide you with more specific details at this moment.”

He also emphasized once more that this trailer was primarily a technical showcase and served as a “good benchmark” for now.

“Certainly, it’s worth noting [that for this] initial showcase, we produced the cinematic pre-rendered piece without post-production, to demonstrate that we aspire to achieve such high-quality cinematics as much as we can. That’s my view: it’s a valuable benchmark.”

The focus on this merely being an early display, rather than an official ‘beginning of the marketing’ effort, recalls comments made by CDPR’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski to Eurogamer recently, explained in greater detail in our latest report on what we can anticipate from The Witcher 4.

During a conversation with Eurogamer earlier this summer, Nowakowski mentioned that while Phantom Liberty experienced a more condensed, six-month marketing campaign prior to its launch, “for a new game, we would still expect a somewhat extended – but not a two-year – campaign.” (The two years it took for Cyberpunk 2077 was largely due to delays, he noted, with the studio originally planning around 12 to 18 months from the big reveal moment with Keanu Reeves at E3 to release.)

Nowakowski also articulated that marketing should initiate with a “mass attack” serving as the starting point for that less-than-two-year timeline leading up to the release date. “That said, I want to emphasize: it doesn’t rule out the possibility of teasing or releasing some exciting materials before [the major reveal]. Because the campaign, done somewhat earlier ahead of the game’s release, differs from the actual ‘mass attack.’ The mass attack is when you announce the release date, begin taking pre-orders, and that’s when the effort really kicks off from that point until the game’s launch.”

For example, he elaborated at the time, “If I were to ask you what you know about The Witcher 4, the answer would probably be not much – yes, there are theories floating around, but nothing concrete. Therefore, we want to drop hints here and there so that both the audience and the media can engage with and decipher what we aim to convey this time. So, [that is something] we can start doing a little earlier.” This could involve elements like “producing some videos”