Is The Witcher 4 Gameplay Trailer A Hoax?

CD Projekt RED took to the stage at the State of Unreal presentation and presented a tech demo that showed off the power of The Witcher 4. Players thought this was real gameplay footage, but the company later made a statement that would shake these expectations: The content shown is not from the game, but simply a demo of the technologies that will run the game.

Witcher 4 Video Is Not Real Gameplay, Just a Technical Demonstration

The presentation looked fascinating as Ciri travels through the mountains and towns with her new horse Kelpie. However, this footage was not from the final version of the game, but was simply a scene created to introduce the technology developed with Unreal Engine 5. In a statement made to VGC by CD Projekt RED, it was explained that this was not The Witcher 4 itself, but only a preview of the game’s technological foundations.

This has been met with backlash from the studio’s already sensitive community due to the differences between the studio’s previous visual promises in The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 and the final version. While the demo shows how technologies like Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, and ML Deformer could be used in the game, it’s unclear whether these elements will be fully present in the game.

CD Projekt RED says this technical demonstration is an early milestone and that the systems developed in collaboration with Epic Games will shape future games. So we saw a visually impressive demonstration, but that doesn’t mean The Witcher 4 will look exactly like this at launch. Still, considering the success of the company’s previous projects, the result is likely to be satisfactory.

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