Earlier this month, CD Projekt gave fans an exciting first look at The Witcher 4 with a striking tech demo built on Unreal Engine 5. Captured on PlayStation 5 and running at 60 frames per second, the teaser offered a clear idea of what players can expect from the upcoming game.
Charles Tremblay, vice president of technology at CD Projekt, has now discussed why the company is taking a “console-first” approach (after previously focusing primarily on PC) and shared more about its technical ambitions.
In a recent interview with Digital Foundry, Tremblay confirmed that one of the studio’s goals is to achieve 60 FPS performance on modern consoles. He acknowledged, however, that making Ciri’s journey run smoothly on the Xbox Series S will be particularly difficult.

“I wish we did a lot of work already on that but we did not,” he admitted. “So this is something that is next on our radar for sure. I will say that 60 FPS will definitely be extremely challenging on the Xbox Series S. Let’s just say this is something we need to figure out.”
This is the first time CD Projekt abandons its proprietary REDengine and develops a major release using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5.
“We always do PC and we push (the technology) and then we try to scale down,” Tremblay noted. “But we had so many problems in the past that we said okay, this time around we really want to be (doing) more console-first development.”
Even after a string of delays, the 2020 launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was a technical mess for the Polish developer. Console players, particularly on PS4 and Xbox One, faced nonstop crashes and framerate drops that made the game nearly unplayable.
In light of that rocky release, Tremblay was quick to reassure fans that The Witcher 4 will prioritize both performance and visual quality, with special attention paid to the PC experience.
“In the past, something that’s super important for the group is that if people pay good money for their hardware, then we want them to have what the game can provide for that, not like a simplified experience,” he said.
“So this is something we will definitely explore. The company started as a PC company, and we’ll definitely want to have the best experience for the PC gamer for sure. But it’s too early to say what this will mean for The Witcher 4.”

CD Projekt has not yet revealed a release date for The Witcher 4, but the game is confirmed for PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X. Alongside this project, the studio is also developing a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and a remake of the original The Witcher, which will feature an open-world format.