The Witcher 4 is the next entry in CD Projekt Red's dark fantasy RPG series.
First announced during the Game Awards 2024, the follow-up to the Witcher 3 is set to be the start of a new AAA RPG trilogy. Not only that, but it's only one of several exciting upcoming CD Projekt Red games in the pipeline, with the studio also confirming the likes of a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and a Witcher 1 remake.
The Witcher 4 release date and platforms are unconfirmed
CD Project RED is yet to confirm any Witcher 4 release date details for its new open-world RPG. Not only has a release window yet to be set, we have no sense of what platforms it will land on just yet, either.
After confirming that The Witcher 4 was going into the "full-scale production phase" in late 2024, all we have to go on for the time being is a CD Projekt Red fiscal earnings report from March 2025, which suggests The Witcher 4 won't be ready for launch until at least 2027. We're still awaiting more news on this front, but it looks like we'll be in for quite a wait.
The Witcher 4 trailer
The trailer for The Witcher 4 is a cinematic wonder that does a great job of setting the scene for the upcoming game. Revealed during The Game Awards 2024, the clip shows Ciri disrupting a village that is hell bent on sacrificing a young woman. The teaser shows off the moody vibe of the game as well as a pretty epic fight sequence between Ciri and a monster as our new witcher. You can watch the trailer for yourself above!
The Witcher 4 gameplay
The Witcher 4 gameplay experience is going to be familiar if you played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with some notable differences. While you'll be returning to the Continent, CDPR is shooting for a more brutal dark-fantasy world, with Ciri taking the lead as she tries to walk the Witcher's path as the old world crumbles around her.
The studio has already confirmed that The Witcher 4 will be a single-player RPG set in an open-world, albeit one where you have more scope to make choices and live with the consequences. Ciri is a very different character to Geralt, more open to embracing the world around her – part of her struggle in this new adventure will be not only in grappling with ancient nightmares, but the evil which lurks in the people struggling to survive this land.
Still, at the heart of it all is the Witcher – a mutated warrior skilled in combat and alchemy, slaying monsters which threaten people for a price; only now you'll be able to do it with new combat proficiencies, all of it enhanced with Ciri's ability to deftly wield magic.
All in all, it sounds as though we can expect the next game to continue bringing to life what the series has become known for.
Narrative lead Philip Weber spoke with us here at GamesRadar+ about the direction of the Witcher 4, saying that, "the stuff that we want from a Witcher game, that people want from a Witcher game, we can't break that. We have to do that."
Weber also added that the Witcher 4 is learning lessons from CDPR's past in more ways than one, with no fetch quests, an eye on Cyberpunk 2077's characters, and a lot of care being put into quest design overall.
Interestingly, the lead gameplay designer of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's hardcore mode also joined the Witcher 4 team as a senior quest designer, with a LinkedIn post revealing the move in November 2025.
The Witcher 4 combat
In The Witcher 4 you take control of Ciri, not a seasoned veteran but a character just starting down the witcher's path. That'll be reflected in combat encounters in The Witcher 4, where Ciri may not always start with the upper hand in encounters, but has the capacity to gain the advantage by striking at the opportune moment.
You can get a sense of this from the first Witcher 4 trailer, particularly in how the character wields magic (something not typically seen in other witchers out there in the wilds).
If you watch the cinematic back closely, you'll also notice that Ciri is able to seamlessly integrate her abilities into combat, imbuing her with more range, options, and vulnerabilities – CDPR says that this will be at the heart of The Witcher 4's combat experience.
The Witcher 4 story
CD Projekt Red is yet to reveal the full extent of The Witcher 4 story, but it has framed the new adventure nicely. In this single-player, open-world RPG you will take control of Ciri at the beginning of her monster-slaying career – just as she starts her journey down the witcher's path.
"We're kicking off a brand new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story," says Sebastian Kalemba, game director. "For the longest time we knew that we wanted Ciri to be the protagonist of The Witcher 4; it just felt natural to us and we believe that Ciri deserves it. In this game we want to explore what it means to truly become a witcher by following Ciri on her Path."
Executive producer Malgorzata Mitrega explains that Ciri being so distinct from Geralt also opens up new storytelling possibilities. "She's open, curious, and drawn to people, yearning for connection and understanding. This opens up uncharted territory in storytelling, where relationships and emotions are just as important as the fight for survival."
You get a sense of all of this in the first Witcher 4 trailer, which sees Ciri completing a witcher's contract near the village of Stromford – not only battling an ancient evil in the shadows but encountering evil in a more human form too, where her decision to intervene in old rituals leads to disastrous consequences.
During a behind-the-scenes trailer for The Witcher 4 (which you can watch for yourself above), we also learned that there is a new character named Mioni. Mioni is the young woman who was set to be sacrificed in the village of Stromford during the first trailer.
Although their interaction is brief, Mioni does highlight how the concept of destiny and Ciri rejecting it will play a large role in the upcoming game's story.
Interestingly, Witcher 4 may also be taking ques from Crossroads of Ravens, which is latest entry in the The Witcher Books from author Andrzej Sapkowski. Out in Poland before then releasing internationally at the end of September 2025, narrative director Philip Weber said in a post on Twitter that much like Season of Storms did the Witcher 3, we may see elements from Crossroads of Ravens in The Witcher 4: "I can't reveal how exactly we'll do it, but Season of Storms also came out while we developed The Witcher 3, so we still tried to include some of the new elements."
The Witcher 4 main character
Ciri is the main character in The Witcher 4. Geralt's adopted daughter played a pivotal role in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and now that his story has reached its conclusion, it's time for a new Witcher to leave their mark on the Continent. CD Projekt Red is keen to note the differences between the two characters, with story director Tomasz Marchewka explaining:
"On one hand, she's very similar to Geralt, a continuator of his values – honorable, brave, just, but she also has this side we haven't explored much – grim, rebellious, and fierce. She's familiar, but at the same time she's fresh. And she's simply a badass."
The studio says that there was never any doubt that Ciri would become the protagonist of The Witcher franchise.
Marchewka says that "from the very beginning we knew it had to be Ciri – she's a very complex character, and there is so much to be told about here." Executive producer Malgorzata Mitrega adds: "Ciri is a worthy successor to the title of the next Witcher, and personally for me she always has been!".
In an interview with Parkiet, CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz also said Ciri is a great choice for The Witcher 4 since she opens up new possibilities for the series, both from an artistic and narrative perspective.
In terms of other characters in the game, Geralt will appear in some form, as voice actor Doug Cockle has signed onto the project. It's unclear at this stage who else will return, but Yennefer's voice actor, Denise Gough, confirmed that they aren't signed onto the new game as of yet. We'll keep you posted as we await more casting news.
The Witcher 4 open world
The Witcher 4 is going to be a single-player open-world RPG. Developer CD Projekt Red believes it'll be the "most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date." With a new protagonist comes a new open world to explore, and the studio is already teasing out a far darker fantasy world.
You should expect The Witcher 4 to offer up a world that is more dangerous and unpredictable than the one we experienced alongside Geralt, "a world where the old order is crumbling, and dark forces are seizing their chance to rise." The studio adds: "In this world, survival depends not only on your skills in combat, but also on the connections you make with those around you, for better or worse."
You can expect to venture to new regions we haven't seen in the series, although the map size is said to be "more or less" the same as The Witcher 3 - which is sizeable in scale. In fact, during the Unreal Fest Orlando showcase, as part of the Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule, we got to see a snippet of a new region and town.
In the presentation, Ciri made her way to the port town of Valdrest, which lies in the forest-filled region of Kovir. We see the world is reacting to Ciri's smallest actions, be that bumping into townsfolk or them looking at her with caution as she passes by. Not only did the town feel massive with tons of detail, but it felt alive in the demo, reacting to the player's every move.
While CDPR is setting out to bring to life a more ambitious open-world that makes the most of the "generational shift" between Witcher 3 and Witcher 4, they're still looking back to past locations for inspiration. Speaking with us at GamesRadar+, engineering production manager on the Unreal Tech demo, Jan Hermanowicz, explained that the team "spent a lot of time watching recordings of Novigrad from Witcher 3" to bring to life believable crowds and a feeling of liveliness to Valdrest.
The Witcher 4 choice and consequences
Expanding on this darker open-world concept, narrative director Philipp Weber says that: "The world of The Witcher 4 is a place full of moral ambiguity, and so the stories we tell there rarely provide easy answers of good and evil. Make your choices, and live with the consequences."
"Ciri's story is a battle against destiny. This battle comes at a price that will have to be paid eventually – either by Ciri, or by those dear to her. Your actions within the open world, the people you permit to come close to you, all have the potential to affect the path Ciri goes down on, and who she will become."
So you can certainly expect to face some tough choices and explore different story branches. In fact, difficult decisions was a big talking point in an interview with IGN, in which director Sebastian Kalemba expressed a desire for tough choices in RPGs "even if the emotion in the end is sadness", because "we want players to feel rewarded".
Speaking on the goal for The Witcher 4, Kalemba also added, "We want to put player agency in the center... We want players to be able to really sense these opportunities and to go in-depth when it comes to choice and consequences. We want to give players more tools, more opportunities, to be able to feel that 'I am the player and I define my experience.'"
The Witcher 4 engine
CD Project RED is using Unreal Engine 5 to develop The Witcher 4. The studio spoke back in 2022 about its decision to shift away from the REDengine – which was used for The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 – but The Game Awards 2024 was our first opportunity to see the new vision for the series in action, which is said to be the "most advanced" game CD Projekt is working on to date.
The results are impressive, although it should be noted that The Witcher 4 cinematic trailer is not rendered in real-time, but rather has been powered by the same technology powering the game to give you a sense of what the final product may look like. CDPR has confirmed that the debut trailer uses assets and models from the game itself and "represents a look that we're targeting."
At the State of Unreal 2025 showcase, CDPR also debuted a tech demo of the game in action using Unreal Engine 5. While it's good to keep in mind that the footage shown isn't of gameplay of The Witcher 4 - which engineering production manager Jan Hermanowicz reiterated in an interview with us here at GamesRadar+ - but rather a "deep dive into the technological foundation of the new Witcher saga".
We get to see some of its features, such as the way Ciri and her horse Kelpie are perfectly synchronized, with realistic horse anatomy to create "grounded" movements.
Senior technical animator Julius Girbig also spoke on the move to Unreal from the RED Engine during the showcase, saying it was a "well-thought out decision to move-over".
"We're bringing our experience that we already have from RED Engine, all the AAA open-world with streaming, all that experience," Girbig said, "we're now bringing over to experts that have been building engines for years as well."
Did Geralt die in The Witcher 3?
While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had a number of ending variations, it's now possible to get a better sense of the canon ending for the Geralt series, now that we know Ciri is walking the witcher's path. In The Witcher 3, the three core ending scenarios involved: Ciri becoming a witcher, becoming the Empress, or dying.
We know that the third option is out of the picture, which is also the scenario which implied that Geralt dies in combat. So instead we're likely looking at a world in which Geralt is still active in the Continent during The Witcher 4, albeit in a reduced capacity – his monster slaying days behind him as he grows older and wearier.
Some of the ending variations in The Witcher 3 did, after all, have Geralt retiring in Kovir with Triss or eloping with Yennefer. So who knows, maybe we'll see some old, friendly faces. Voice actor Doug Cockle has signed on to The Witcher 4, so we do know that Geralt will appear in some way in the game. Whether that's as a living figure or a flashback is yet to be seen, though.
Looking for something to play while you wait for more? Check out one of the best games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Or for the latest on the TV side of things, our friends at Total Film have a great The Witcher season 4 review for you to check out as well.
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