CD Projekt RED momentarily dropped jaws this week when it showed a demo of The Witcher 4, running at 60fps with ray tracing on a bog-standard PS5.
Of course, among the hanging tongues was a hearty helping of scepticism: can Sony’s current console, released in 2020, really do that? After all, not even showpiece first-party titles like Gran Turismo 7 can maintain a blistering frame rate and ray tracing on a standard PS5 at the same time.
The answer, perhaps inevitably, is probably not.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Polish studio has said fairly definitively that what we saw this week is very much a tech demo, and not the game itself.
“This is […] a first look at the cutting-edge technology powering The Witcher 4 – but not The Witcher 4 itself,” the company confusingly explained.
“It showcases the powerful foundation we’re building in close collaboration with Epic Games to push open-world design further than ever before and the core systems and features we’re developing using Unreal Engine 5.
“We’re really proud of this early milestone and excited to give you a sneak peek at some of the cool tech like UAF, Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, ML Deformer, and FastGeo Streaming that are helping shape the future of The Witcher.”
In other words, what you’re looking at is a purpose-built demo designed to showcase some of the technological ambitions of The Witcher 4, but not necessarily a vertical slice of the game itself.
Many have quite rightly pointed out that the Polish developer has form for this, as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – while stunning in its own right – was significantly downgraded on PS4 prior to launch. And the less said about Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous debut, the better.