Witcher 4 Is Taking A Console-First Approach, Plus A Reality Check For Xbox Series S

CD Projekt Red is a busy studio these days. It just recently released a solid port of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Nintendo Switch 2, it’s deep into production of The Witcher 4, and has already announced that Cyberpunk 2 is in the early stages of development. Yet the developers still had time to show off an impressive tech demo featuring Unreal Engine 5 and discuss its new console first approach.

In an interview with Digital Foundry, VP of Technology Charles Tremblay shared some insight into the studio’s current development process. “We always do PC and we push and then we try to scale down. But then we had so many problems in the past that we tried to say, this time around we really want to be more console-first development."


Tremblay’s mention of issues the company has run into in the past is likely a reference to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. While the game mostly ran fine on PCs that met the minimum requirements, console players got an awful experience. It was so bad that PlayStation pulled the game from its digital store for several months and even offered refunds to those who requested them.

Even with this approach not all consoles will get to have the game running in all its glory. Xbox Series S owners will have to temper their expectations. Tremblay notes that getting the game to run at 60fps has been incredibly challenging. The most likely path forward is trying to just ensure a solid 30fps on Microsoft’s lower end box.

PC gamers shouldn’t be concerned that the lead platform is a console, though. The tech demo showed that there’s going to be plenty of eye candy for players to enjoy, even while running on a standard PlayStation 5. If that’s the baseline for what’s going to be on tap, then the game should absolutely be a showstopper once it’s running on a competent gaming PC.