'Broken PC port confirmed': The Witcher 4 console-first approach met with fan scepticism

Fans of The Witcher 4 seem to be quite sceptic about comments made by a CD Projekt Red boss about the studio going for "console-first development" and targeting 60fps on the current generation of consoles including Xbox Series S.

A tech demo of The Witcher 4 was shown off at Unreal Fest which followed the main protagonist Ciri in the middle of a monster contract and showed some of the technology from Unreal Engine 5.

The demo took place in Kovir, its very first appearance in the series. Ciri made her way through rugged mountains along with her horse Kelpie making her way to lively port town Valdrest through rugged mountains and dense forests.

Charles Tremblay, the VP of technology at CD Projekt Red, said in an interview with Digital Foundry: "When we started the collaboration [with Epic Games and Unreal Engine 5], we had super high ambitions for this project.

"We always do PC and we push and then we try to scale down but then we had so many problems in the past that we tried to see, okay, this time around we really want to be more of a console-first development. Then we worked with Unreal and we saw the challenge to realise the ambition that to make what we want, 60fps on PS5, there would be work.

"Where we go from there, it's hard to say, but right now we really wanted to focus on what does it mean to make this ambition on a console. We really wanted to aim for 60 fps and not go back to 30 fps."

Tremblay also said achieving 60fps on Xbox Series S will be "extremely challenging".

This was reposted in the Gaming Subreddit and a number of fans seem to be worried about this approach from CD Projekt Red.

Realistic_Union7922 said: "Then don't. This console gen is f***** anyways, nobody expect this game to run 4K / 120 on console. Just give us the game when it's ready and fully optimised."

Smitty4141 said: "Dumbest decision Microsoft made was the Series S. Handcuffed themselves."

Alternative-Dog6646 said: "Broken PC port confirmedddd."

DarthRiznat said: "Remember this is coming from the same guys whose last flagship game had to be pulled from the PlayStation store."

PhantomLiberty said: "Cool, keep optimising your game then!"

However some have backed CD Projekt Red to deliver.

MoNguSs said: "People love s******g on Xbox Series S and Microsoft mandating support for it but the effort towards optimising on weaker hardware will make the game run on more PC configurations, including handhelds like Steam Deck and the new Xbox themed ROG Ally. Yes it will be a difficult task but ultimately this isn't hurting anyone except potentially Xbox Series X users who may miss out on games because they couldn't be made to work on the S."

DevelopmentScary3844 said: "From software engineering perspective this seem to be a really smart thing to do. When you think about the Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles they seem to have learned a lesson. PC gamers will profit here as well I think since they can rump everything up."

CD Projekt Red has confirmed the game will release on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. There is not yet news of a release date.

Elsewhere from indy100, everything we know so far about The Witcher 4 and how does Cyberpunk 2077 really run on Nintendo Switch 2?

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