The Witcher 4 will be one of CD Projekt Red’s main priorities and it’s going to take each port more seriously this time, even the console versions. After the company botched Cyberpunk 2077’s release on PS4 and Xbox One, the devs are determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Cobin Walder, the CD Projekt Red engineering director for management and audio, discussed working on Project Polaris, the codename for this next Witcher game. Speaking at the Inven Game Conference in South Korea (via Rock Paper Shotgun), Walder said history wouldn’t repeat itself and that the console versions would be a major priority.
"It's about ensuring we're on top of certain things from the start," says Walder. "Take consoles, for example; we need to make sure they're functioning from the get-go. For our next project, Polaris, we're already running our demos and internal reviews on the console from the very beginning. This is a step we only took later in Cyberpunk's development."
After rushing Cyberpunk 2077 to release, it’s clear that CD Projekt Red regrets not listening to the devs and crunching them to get the RPG done. While the game eventually got good, they don’t want the same thing to happen for The Witcher 4.
Most fans still remember how bad Cyberpunk was on PS4 and Xbox One, barely running at 30fps with very muddy textures. Considering how CD Projekt Red ported The Witcher 3 to PS4, Xbox One, and Switch without much issue, they could have done a lot better. Then again, many feel that Cyberpunk should have just been a current-gen title, even with updates making last-gen ports more tolerable.
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Obviously, The Witcher 4 is a major priority to CD Projekt Red, but it’s good to see the console versions of this game getting some love. Now that the game will likely only come to PS5 and Xbox Series systems, that should make developing for it a bit easier. Who knows? Maybe it will also come to Switch 2.