CD Projekt Red has said it’s aiming for The Witcher 4 to run at 60fps on current-generation consoles but has warned that achieving the same on Xbox Series S would be “extremely challenging”. The developer’s comments come after it showcased an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo for the game at the State of Unreal presentation earlier this month. The impressive demo, which was a “deep dive into the technological foundation of the new Witcher saga” rather than actual gameplay from The Witcher 4, was said to be running on a base PS5 at 60fps with ray tracing turned on.
The Witcher 4 Performance Target on Consoles
In an interview with Digital Foundry discussing The Witcher 4 tech demo, CDPR said that it was targeting 60fps on consoles from the outset for demo. The studio aims to do the same for the RPG when it launches on current-gen consoles.
“At this stage we’re perfectly aware that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. This is a tech demo. There is, you know, not the whole gameplay loop is implemented, there’s no combat, there’s a lot of things that don’t work,” Charles Tremblay, CD Projekt Red‘s vice president of technology said.
“But still the ambition is set. So, this is where want to aim and we’ll be damned we don’t try to get this game (run at 60fos) in performance. It’s too early to say if we’ll manage to nail it, but we’ll work as hard as we can to make it for sure.”
60 FPS on Series S
While 60fps would be the target performance on PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, CDPR said the same would be difficult to achieve for the underpowered Xbox Series S.
“This is something on our radar for sure,” Tremblay said in response to a question about scaling down The Witcher 4 graphics for Series S. “But I will say that 60fps will definitely be extremely challenging on the Series S. Let’s just say that this is something we need to figure out.”
The Xbox Series S has posed a challenge for several developers working on Xbox Series S/X ports of their games as the console offers lower memory and GPU capability than its higher-end twin. Microsoft, as policy, enforces gameplay feature parity between both of its current-generation consoles and the company mandates developers to launch games on both Xbox Series X and Series S simultaneously.
The launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox consoles was delayed because the technical limitations of the Series S meant developer Larian Studios struggled to implement the game’s split-screen co-op feature on the lower-end console. Eventually, the RPG arrived on current-gen Xbox consoles without the split-screen co-op feature on Series S, four months after it released on PC and three months after its PS5 launch.
Black Myth Wukong developer Game Science, too, suggested earlier this year that the action-RPG was delayed on current-gen Xbox consoles owing to optimisation issues on Xbox Series S.
While The Witcher 4 tech demo was running at 60fps on a base PS5, it’s worth noting that the footage does not represent the final game. The RPG may not be able to hit that performance target on consoles at launch. The Witcher 4 does not yet have a confirmed release date, but CDPR has said it will not release before 2027.
