‘The Witcher 4’ Trailer Is Already Blowing Up in the U.S.—and Its Graphics Look Next‑Gen

• What dropped: CD Projekt RED unveiled The Witcher IV (widely referred to as The Witcher 4) with a nearly six‑minute cinematic at The Game Awards on December 13, 2024—confirming Ciri as the lead. The trailer was pre‑rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU. CD Projekt Red Press Center
• Why everyone’s talking about the visuals: In June 2025, CDPR and Epic showed a live Unreal Engine 5.6 tech demo built with Witcher 4 assets, running at 60 FPS with ray tracing on a base PS5—a showcase of what the studio is targeting on current‑gen hardware (it was a tech demo, not the final game). The Verge
• U.S. traction: The reveal landed during The Game Awards in Los Angeles, part of a show that broke audience records with 154 million global livestreams; U.S. outlets (The Verge, PC Gamer, GameSpot, Newsweek) front‑paged the trailer within hours, and media uploads have amassed millions of views. Newsweek
• Story pivot: Ciri’s promotion from supporting character to protagonist kicks off a new Witcher saga; the reveal short frames her intervening in a ritual sacrifice and hunting a monster rooted in Balkan folklore. CD Projekt Red Press Center
• Temper expectations: CDPR has told investors not to expect a release before 2027. Reuters

The trailer that lit up the U.S. gaming conversation

CD Projekt RED’s reveal short—officially titled “The Witcher IV — Cinematic Reveal Trailer”—does two things at once: it crowns Ciri as the series’ playable lead and reminds fans why The Witcher became synonymous with grim, grounded fantasy. The vignette finds Ciri stepping between a village and a monster to stop a ritual sacrifice, a “self‑contained Witcher story” that telegraphs the new saga’s tone and moral stakes. CDPR says the cinematic is pre‑rendered in Unreal Engine 5 using in‑game assets to illustrate the mood and target fidelity of the project. CD Projekt Red Press Center

The pivot to Ciri isn’t a rumor—it’s straight from the studio. “We wanted Ciri to be the protagonist … to explore what it means to truly become a witcher,” said game director Sebastian Kalemba in the reveal. CD Projekt Red Press Center PC Gamer’s Andy Chalk summed up the moment succinctly: “this one is all about Ciri.” PC Gamer

Beyond the narrative beat, the trailer’s creature feature stirred speculation. In follow‑up reporting, GameSpot notes that the arachnid horror Ciri hunts draws on Serbian folklore’s Bauk, underscoring CDPR’s habit of pulling from Slavic myth to build monsters with cultural roots. GameSpot

Yes, the graphics look jaw‑dropping—here’s the technical reality

The cinematic is not gameplay, and CDPR is explicit about that. But within six months of the reveal, the studio and Epic Games put their tech where their mouth is. At Epic’s State of Unreal 2025 keynote, developers ran a live UE5.6 tech demo with Witcher 4 assets—60 FPS with ray tracing on a standard PS5—to demonstrate what CDPR and Epic are optimizing on current‑gen consoles. The Verge’s on‑site report details Ciri riding into Valdrest, a bustling market, plus a forest scene and notably realistic horse behavior—all designed to stress foliage density and crowd simulation. The Verge

Epic’s own roundup explains the features on display: Nanite Foliage for dense, memory‑efficient vegetation; improved crowd rendering; and ML Deformer / Chaos cloth for more lifelike movement—tools that speak directly to open‑world scale and fidelity. This was a technical showreel, not a slice of the shipped game, but it’s a credible signal of CDPR’s visual ambitions on UE5.6+ rather than an offline render. Unreal Engine

VGC’s write‑up reinforces the headline claim from the stage: the demo ran at 60 FPS with ray tracing on base PS5—the kind of performance target that matters if CDPR wants to win back console trust after Cyberpunk 2077’s launch. VGC

Why it’s “already a U.S. hit”

The reveal wasn’t tucked into a niche stream—it premiered on The Game Awards stage in Los Angeles, during a show that shattered its own records with 154 million livestreams. That enormous funnel helped the Witcher 4 trailer dominate U.S. tech and gaming media (The Verge, PC Gamer, GameSpot, Newsweek), and media re‑uploads on outlets like IGN have drawn millions of plays, signaling broad stateside interest even without country‑specific YouTube breakouts. Newsweek

What the experts are saying

• Julius Girbig, senior technical animator at CDPR, told The Verge the team deliberately showcased the demo on a base PS5: “Let’s start with the consoles… show how much we can optimize this engine together with Epic and make it work on current gen.” That’s a strong signal the studio is designing with console performance front‑of‑mind. The Verge
• Sebastian Kalemba, game director, framed the narrative shift: “We wanted Ciri to be the protagonist… and explore what it means to truly become a witcher.” Expect character‑driven choices and consequences anchored to Ciri’s path. CD Projekt Red Press Center
• Andy Chalk at PC Gamer emphasizes how decisively the trailer re‑centers the franchise around Ciri—“all about Ciri”—while reading the cinematic as a time skip that still leaves room for Geralt in a supporting role. PC Gamer

A new engine, a new approach

After Cyberpunk 2077’s rough initial console launch on its in‑house REDengine, CDPR’s strategic pivot to Unreal Engine 5 is as much about production discipline as pixels. The Verge’s coverage points to scalability, better AI for large crowds, and a cleaner pipeline across projects (including the Witcher 1 remake). The public UE demo, meanwhile, indicates that open‑world streaming, foliage, and animation systems are receiving special attention—precisely where The Witcher 3 strained last gen. The Verge

Release timing and what’s next

Don’t confuse the cinematic and tech demo cadence with an imminent ship date. In March 2025, CD Projekt’s CFO Piotr Nielubowicz told investors the new Witcher will not arrive before 2027. That means more trailers and deeper dives are likely before a date is locked. Reuters

For now, the safest take is also the most exciting: the art direction of the reveal short plus the real‑time performance seen in the State of Unreal demo suggest CDPR is aiming to marry the series’ folklore‑steeped storytelling with current‑gen visual density—crowded markets, living forests, and monsters that feel ripped from regional myth. If the studio hits the bar it just showed publicly, The Witcher 4 will be more than a new protagonist; it’ll be a showpiece for UE5‑era open worlds. CD Projekt Red Press Center

Sources

• CDPR press center announcement of The Witcher IV trailer and technical details (UE5, pre‑rendered, Ciri lead). CD Projekt Red Press Center
• The Verge report and interview from State of Unreal 2025 (demo content; PS5 60 FPS with RT; “console‑first” optimization rationale). The Verge
• VGC on the PS5 60 FPS with ray tracing claim from the tech demo. VGC
• PC Gamer analysis of the reveal and Ciri’s starring role. PC Gamer
• GameSpot interview clarifying the Bauk folklore inspiration. GameSpot
• Reuters on the earliest release window (post‑2026). Reuters
• Epic/Unreal Engine roundup detailing Nanite Foliage and other UE5.6 features shown with Witcher 4 assets. Unreal Engine
• The Game Awards viewership record (context for the reveal’s reach). thegameawards.com

Note: The Netflix series’ “Season 4” trailer (also trending this week) is unrelated to CDPR’s game—this article covers the video game reveal and engine demo, not the TV show.