The release version of Cyberpunk 2077 1.0 was remembered by players for a long time. The project was plagued by technical problems on PCs and consoles – it even led to the temporary removal of the game from the PlayStation Store. This was also remembered by specialists from CD Projekt RED, so when working on the new installment of The Witcher 4 franchise, attention is paid to versions for all target platforms.
One of CD Projekt RED's co-CEOs, Michal Nowakowski, told Game Developer that the current build of The Witcher 4 can be launched on PC, as well as Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. However, the developer did not mention the weaker Xbox Series S model:
You come to the studio and launch The Witcher 4. You can launch it on PC, or you can launch it on PS5 or Xbox Series X – and the game will work.
Previously, Nowakowski explained, CD Projekt RED aimed to provide the highest possible graphics quality, so with this approach, PC became the main development platform. This was the case with Cyberpunk 2077, and the developers learned from their own experience that porting the game to consoles later was significantly more difficult than they had assumed:
The studio proceeded from the assumption that we strive for the highest possible image quality. We wanted to push the boundaries of what is achievable in terms of cinematic quality and so on, and PC was best suited for this. As it turned out, it was a mistake to assume that adapting everything to the current generation of consoles would not be particularly difficult.
Nowakowski noted that this approach was also used when working on The Witcher 3 – there were difficulties then too, but the authors "got a little lucky," so they mistakenly decided that they would cope with Cyberpunk 2077 as well.
Now, if something goes wrong on one of the platforms during the development of The Witcher 4, development is paused and resumes after the problem is fixed.
The release of The Witcher 4 is expected in 2028. The release of the remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is scheduled for September 29 of this year, and the story expansion Songs of the Past (or "Ballads of the Past") is also in development – they want to release it in 2027.