The Witcher 4 is built for console first, CDPR confirms 60FPS is not guaranteed

CD Projekt Red and Epic Games have sat down with the tech experts at Digital Foundry to discuss the recent Witcher 4 tech demo that was showcased at Unreal Fest, and how that tech demo relates to what will be the playable version of The Witcher 4.

Digital Foundry asked CDRP and Epic Games about their decision to run the tech demo on a base PS5, considering the developer has in the past decided to run demos for their upcoming games on PCs. CDPR stated that at the beginning of its collaboration with Epic Games, it set the ambition to target 60FPS on console, instead of choosing PC and then having to scale down the game to console. This decision was made due to past struggles of choosing PC first, which is undoubtedly a reference to the tragic release of Cyberpunk 2077 on console.

As to whether The Witcher 4 will actually run at 60FPS when it releases, well, that is another question entirely. CDPR explained that it is very aware that the tech demo isn't exactly representative of what players will experience within The Witcher 4, as setting the same goal of 60FPS in an open-world far mightier goal than aiming for 60FPS in a tech demo. Despite the goal being mightier, CDPR is still standing by the ambition it set for the tech demo, 60FPS on console.

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"At this stage, we are perfectly aware that we still have a lot of work ahead of us," says Charles Tremblay, VP of technology at CDPR. "This is a tech demo. [...] There's no combat, there's a lot of things that [don't] work, but still, the ambition is set. This is where we want to aim and we'll be damned if we don't try to get this game in performance," he continues. "It's too early to say if we manage to nail it, but we'll work as hard as we can to make it, for sure."