Following CD Projekt Red‘s recent announcement that The Witcher 4 has now “entered the full-scale production phase” and various teasers involving coins, we finally received our first real look at the new RPG during its cinematic trailer at The Game Awards 2024 – and it turns out that this may actually be how the game looks in action.
According to the studio, even though the cinematic trailer is just that, it’s also a representation of how the developers might aspire for The Witcher 4 to look upon release. “The trailer is a cinematic look at the kind of experience The Witcher 4 is aspiring to give to players,” writes CD Projekt Red in a slideshow on the RPG. “It is not rendered in real-time, but it is powered by the same tech that The Witcher 4 is being built on, which is Unreal Engine 5.”
While it’s “not rendered in real-time,” the cinematic trailer could still serve as a first look at the game. “The trailer is pre-rendered in our own custom build of the engine, using assets and models from the game itself,” continues the dev in its statement on the reveal. “As such, it represents a look that we’re targeting. This is a showcase of what this tech can do to bring out the style, atmosphere, and overall feel that we want The Witcher 4 to have.”
The studio also calls The Witcher 4 its “most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date” in its rundown of the cinematic trailer, unveiling a “brutal” world and “the start of a new saga” that’s yet to come with the long-awaited RPG. As a longtime fan of the series myself, it sounds like yet another CD Projekt Red title that’s sure to keep me occupied for some 200 hours at least – but likely more, judging by my time in The Witcher 3.
It seems like the game will be massive, and there’s more in the works than just The Witcher 4, too – there are other upcoming CD Projekt Red games like the codenamed Project Sirius, another Witcher game that developers say will “differ from past productions” at CDPR. A new story from The Witcher books‘ author Andrzej Sapkowski is also out now, arriving over a decade after the series’ last title, so it’s safe to say we fans are eating good.