CD Projekt Red Prioritizes Consoles for The Witcher 4 with Unreal Engine 5

CD Projekt Red is adopting a "more console-focused development strategy" for The Witcher 4, as revealed in an interview by Digital Foundry with the company and Epic Games. The technical demonstration of the game, which caught attention for the visual complexity of elements such as trees (Nanite Foliage), was shown running on a PlayStation 5, not on a PC. This approach marks a change from the developer's previous practices.

Charles Tremblay, VP of technology at CD Projekt Red, explained the motivation behind this decision: 

"We always do PC and push and then try to scale it down. But we had so many issues in the past that we tried to see, okay, this time we really want a more console-focused development, right? And then we worked with Unreal, with our partner, and we saw the challenge - achieving the ambition of doing what we want at 60 fps on the PS5 would, you know, there would be work."

The reference to "issues in the past" directly refers to the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation, which led Sony to remove the game from its digital store for a period. Additionally, The Witcher 3 also required a significant volume of patches after its release in 2015 to fix performance issues and bugs. CD Projekt Red seems determined to avoid a repetition of these scenarios, seeking to ensure a more solid launch experience on all platforms.

Jakub Knapik, VP of art and global art director at CD Projekt Red, complemented the discussion, arguing that it is "easier to scale up than to scale down." He highlighted the effectiveness of Unreal Engine 5 technologies, such as Lumen, in maintaining a consistent visual representation at different scales. "Because we know that both Lumen and all these technologies provide us with a fairly consistent representation across the scale, we knew that once we establish certain foundations both visually and technically, there is room to scale," said Knapik. This suggests that by optimizing the game for performance on the PlayStation 5, the team is establishing a robust foundation that can be enhanced for more powerful platforms.

Despite the initial focus on consoles, CD Projekt Red reaffirmed its commitment to the PC experience. "Because we are CDPR, we always like to push PCs to the limit. It's just a creative process of how to really use it. We know we have a really great base now on the console that we still need to boost, but we will continue to discover what that means - we will definitely expand all ray tracing features forward," said Knapik. This statement indicates that PC players can expect advanced graphical options, such as enhancements in ray tracing, that will make the most of cutting-edge hardware.

Tremblay reinforced the company's loyalty to its origin: "The company started as a PC company and we definitely want to have the best experience for PC players for sure. But it's too early to say what this will mean for The Witcher 4."

CD Projekt Red's strategy for The Witcher 4 appears to be a calculated attempt to balance technical ambition with stability at launch. By prioritizing development for consoles, the company seeks to ensure a solid performance base, while planning to offer a visually rich and optimized experience for PC users. The use of Unreal Engine 5.6, which has as its "main goal" more performance on the PS5, also suggests benefits for gaming on more accessible PCs. The Witcher community awaits more details on what this approach will mean for the next chapter of the saga.