At the State of Unreal, CD Projekt Red showcased The Witcher 4, running on a PS5 and utilizing the latest version of the Unreal Engine. Following the UE 5.6 release, the tech demo showcased all of the improvements and potential of this release. Especially considering the claims of any game being able to run at a smooth 60 FPS at a minimum on consoles, particularly current-gen options.

That’s likely why the tech demo was said to be running on the PS5, and even though it might not be proper gameplay, it still got us excited. Considering that The Witcher 4 might not be released for quite a while yet, using the tech demo instead makes sense. It’s not revealing too much – the actual gameplay is kept under wraps, while showing off what the game can be like.

CDPR is moving from REDengine to Unreal Engine, and it really makes it look incredible. This allows both Epic and CDPR to generate some excitement for both the game and the engine to get more people on the hype train.

The new Unreal Engine shows stability, graphics, and excellent performance

The Epic’s engine hasn’t exactly been known to provide the best performance out of the box. With the high system requirements of the games, such as Black Myth: Wukong and STALKER 2, which are made on UE5, it’s no surprise to see Epic working on trying to improve its implementation and sorting out any issues there are with it.

With the engine devs working on its open world support, The Witcher is the ideal title to demonstrate it on. With such an expansive and varied world, it can easily convey the vastness and immersive world on any platform. Something that Unreal wants to showcase, too, is that any platform or system can play this without compromise.

So we can expect this to some extent when we enter the game, not just in the demo. Showing off all its potential, CDPR would be amiss not to implement it into the game when it comes out. If both CDPR and Epic want to keep their credibility and goodwill, it’s probably for the best that they both get it right.

There are some cinematics that might not be true to the gameplay itself. One particular Redditor comments on the hood going up and down and wanting to see that in the game itself. That might just depend on how hard it is to implement, but we can still expect the incredible graphics to be there without the need for a top-line graphics card.

With CDPR’s knowledge and experience of improving performance, like with Cyberpunk 2077, you’d hope they can transfer that to The Witcher 4 as well. Plus, it still might be some time away, and plenty of opportunity to get it right, and with the base being Unreal Engine 5.6, we’d like to think it won’t mess it up.

The Witcher 4 UE5 tech demo

About the Author

Sebastian Kozlowski

With a fascination for technology and games, Seb is a tech writer with a focus on hardware and deals. He is also the primary tester and reviewer at BGFG and PCGuide.