Witcher 4 Trailer, A Few Musings

[briggart]

Never Fear!

You don't have to worry about playing it for another decade or more!

They seem to take forever to release their games! Cyberpunk took how long...like 8-10 years between when the first trailer came out and the game was released!

In fact, you might not be able to play it until you reach retirement or almost close to death it could take so long..so...your...'maybe one day' actually sounds very realistic in regards to their development times.

(actually, seriously, no idea how long it will be. It could be as soon as in 2026, could be later...no idea).

Give how things are looking, retirement will never be an option so it looks my choice is going to be "... or death".

 

[Ruin Explorer]

(actually, seriously, no idea how long it will be. It could be as soon as in 2026, could be later...no idea).

W4 was in pre-production from May 2022 and went into full production in November 2024. CDPR's most recent game, Cyberpunk 2077, took four years once it went into full production. So if this was similar, that'd take it to 2028. Witcher 3 took three and a half years in full production.

Note that the trailer was done completely in-engine (technically), using in-game assets and lighting (which is why it looked slightly plain). So we have an idea of what they want the game to look like, and even if we imagine this toned down a bit (using for example baked lighting instead of ray-tracing, which the trailer uses), I don't really see that running on a normal PS5 or on either Xbox model (maybe at 30 FPS on a PS5 Pro), and given the PS6/NextBox isn't expected out until late 2027 or more likely 2028 I'd expect the game will land then and won't release on old-gen consoles (esp. as consoles are a decreasing part of the market relative to PC now).

TLDR - Probably 2028.

(As an aside, if CDPR stick to their "two studios" plan, the next Cyberpunk game will go into full production whilst W4 is still in development, so might land as "soon" as 2030.)