The Witcher 4 LIVE: Epic Games' State of Unreal event reveals new game details

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'F*** GTA 6': The Witcher 4 showcase at State of Unreal event sends hype into overdrive

CD Projekt Red showed off a tech demo of The Witcher 4 running on Unreal Engine 5 at Epic Games' State of Unreal event and it has sent hype for the upcoming game into overdrive.

One Redditor took screenshots from the reveal and posted them in The Witcher Subreddit and gamers were left completely floored at what they saw.

Read the full story here.

Official The Witcher 4 screenshots

The official The Witcher 4 social media account has shared four new screenshots from the presentation.

A post said: "The full presentation will be uploaded and shared with everyone later today, but in the meantime, here's four screenshots straight from the demo to tide us all over."

The account's banner has been updated too.

More info about the tech demo

The tech demo 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 Valdrest through rugged mountains and dense forests.

Speaking about the tech demo, CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michal Nowakowski said: "To show this early look at the work we've been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 fps on PlayStation 5 is a significant milestone and a testament of the great co-operation between our teams.

"But we're far from finished.

"I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership as development of The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues."

A release from CD Projekt Red said the game will release on PlayStation, Xbox and PC - there's no mention of Nintendo Switch 2 though.

New look at Ciri

Ciri was shown in more detail in The Witcher 4 presentation too.

First look at the open world of The Witcher 4

A very first look at the landscape of the open world in The Witcher 4 was shared during the presentation.

The screenshot above was taken from the official feed.

Comments from CD Projekt Red head

CD Projekt Red vice president and game director Sebastian Kalemba said: "We are making this game to be the most immersive and ambitious The Witcher game ever.

"What we are doing together is going to bring in a new generation of open world RPGs and I'm so proud of what we've accomplished so far."

Character technology 

In the market town, traders chat with customers and react to what's going on while Ciri is speaking to the contractor.

Events happen in the town, such as a circus, with crowd density increasing.

There's a new Unreal animation framework which can fit in with 60 fps rendering.

More on The Witcher 4

Ciri has her own horse to navigate the world on called Kelpie.

Kovir again looks absolutely incredible. Nanite foliage is being introduced in Unreal Engine for the first time. The lighting looks amazing too.

Ciri has navigated to the nearby village.

A port town where Ciri's current contract is shown. Ciri pushes past people to get through them in a town that's bustling with life.

The world is incredibly responsive with character actions directly affecting what happens and these can even set off chain reactions.

The Witcher 4 tech demo

A tech demo of The Witcher 4 is being shown.

It shows Ciri navigating the world. It's running on a base PS5 at 60fps with ray-tracing.

She explores the world and hunts down monsters for coins.

Ciri's investigating a monster and is heading back to a nearby village.

The visuals are absolutely stunning.

The Witcher 4

Straight off the bat, The Witcher 4!

A new trailer showed two men in a cart get killed by a monster. It then cuts to Ciri and shows the world that will feature in The Witcher 4.

It looks mountainous, cold and vast.

Event starts

The State of Unreal event has started.

Here we go...

Stream starts

The official stream has started showing off games, both upcoming and that have already released, that use Unreal Engine 5.

Infinity Nikki, Games of Thrones: Kingsroad and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are among the games that have been shown off so far.

30 minutes to go

There's just under 30 minutes to go until the start of the State of Unreal event.

The Witcher 4 will feature at some stage. We'll be covering the event live and have all the announcements as they happen so stay tuned.

The Witcher 4 may not feature one of its most popular characters

The voice actor of one of The Witcher's most popular and important characters has cast doubt about her character returning in the upcoming The Witcher 4.

On an Instagram video posted by both Eurogamer and IGN, Denise Gough, who voices Yennefer of Vengerberg, was asked: "How's production on The Witcher 4 going?"

She instantly replied: "I don't know any of this." However she did then immediately go off at a bit of a tangent, seemingly about her role in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Read the full story here.

What's been confirmed about The Witcher 4?

The game was first revealed to be in the works in 2022 and will be called The Witcher 4, the first game in what's been described by the studio as an AAA RPG trilogy.

Charles Tremblay, vice president of CD Projekt Red, previously told Eurogamer: "It will be better, bigger, greater than The Witcher 3, it will be better than Cyberpunk because for us, it's unacceptable [to launch so abysmally]."

Michal Nowakowski, joint-CEO at CD Projekt Red, has since said the game is now in the "full development" phase.

A new trailer at The Game Awards 2024 showed Ciri as the main character; Geralt will still feature but not in the main role.

Ciri has gone through the famously painful Trial of the Grasses which means she is now a hugely powerful warrior.

The trailer showed her trying to save a woman from a tribe who was chosen to be a sacrifice to a monster which Ciri, who is now a Witcher herself, takes down before returning to the tribe to see the woman has been killed anyway.

In an interview with IGN, game director Sebastian Kalemba revealed the choices players make in the game will have much more weighting and there will be scope to develop Ciri in a number of different ways.

In an interview with Gamespot, Kalemba added Gwent will be a part of the world and there will be romance.

In the same interview, executive producer Malgorzata Mitrega said the trailer is set in an "isolated village" in the "north" and shows "side content for the game".

She added Ciri is more agile, can do more magic, there are loads of new tools such as the chain seen in the trailer and there will be loads of new monsters.

Kalemba has also said players will experience brand new regions on the Continent and there will be loads of brand new monsters too.

He also said the monster in the trailer called Bauk is inspired by Serbian mythology and is a "tricky, tricky b*****d" as it "plays with your own fears".

Release date and platforms are currently unknown.

CD Projekt Red will not make anything else other than AAA role-playing games

A co-founder and a joint-CEO of CD Projekt Red have both confirmed the studio will only continue to produce AAA role-playing games and not deviate from that at all.

Speaking on the latest episode of the AnsweRED podcast, Marcin Iwinski (co-founder) and Adam Badowski (joint-CEO) spoke about the importance of the studio not trying out different things and going down different avenues it's not associated with.

Iwinski said: "We cannot do so many things we would love to do, we are tempted to do. We tried and it didn't work out. We have to focus on what we are good at and really put 100 per cent into it."

Badowski added: "We're going to develop AAA RPG open-world narrative-driven games and this is our, let's say, niche. So the focus is there."

The Witcher 4 details to be revealed at State of Unreal event

New details about CD Projekt Red's upcoming The Witcher 4 will be announced at Epic Games' State of Unreal event.

State of Unreal will show off the latest tools and technology of Epic Games' game engine Unreal Engine 5.

This will include a look at some of the "innovative technology and features that will power The Witcher 4 and beyond", The Witcher 4's official social media account confirmed.

How and when can I watch State of Unreal?

Epic Games' State of Unreal event is taking place at Unreal Fest in Orlando, Florida.

It starts at 9.30am EDT (6.30am PDT / 2.30pm BST) on June 3.

The event will also be livestreamed across Epic Games' official YouTube and Twitch channels. Select partners will also be livestreaming the event too.

Keep it locked with our live blog for all the latest as it happens as we'll be covering the event live.

Good morning!

Hello and welcome to the indy100 live blog on Epic Games' State of Unreal event!

We'll be building up to the event and covering it live when it starts in a few hours' time. It's been confirmed there will be news about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 4.

As well as that, we'll be covering all the announcements made at the event as they happen so stay tuned.