The Witcher 4’s reveal trailer was quite a looker, and it turns out CD Projekt Red is hoping it’ll capture that in the full game too.
We all know that whenever a cinematic trailer is released for the reveal of a game that the final thing won’t end up looking that good. It’s never happened, obviously because of the fact that pre-rendered trailers can just have a heck of a lot more detail than a game that’s rendering in real-time. The reveal trailer that was shown off for The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards last week was no different, it was pre-rendered, but it was also made in Unreal Engine 5. As spotted by GamesRadar, a slideshow for the game’s reveal offered up a few more details about the trailer specifically, and how CD Projekt Red is actually hoping that this is how the final game will look.
“The trailer is a cinematic look at the kind of experience The Witcher 4 is aspiring to give to players,” the developer wrote. 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. The trailer is pre-rendered in our own custom build of the engine, using assets and models from the game itself. 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.”
Obviously this is always the kind of thing any developer hopes to do with a new project, but it might be best to take it with a pinch of salt until we see some gameplay. At the very least, despite only formally starting production last month, that does mean CD Projekt has a strong idea of how it wants new protagonist Ciri to look – who yes, was always going to be the next main character, even if she does have a new voice now.