CD Projekt Red isn’t taking any chances with The Witcher 4 after Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch, with the studio confirming that its next massive RPG is already running across every target platform during development.

Cyberpunk 2077 eventually became one of gaming’s greatest comeback stories, but CD Projekt Red clearly hasn’t forgotten how badly things went when the game originally launched in 2020.

That experience has fundamentally changed how the studio is developing The Witcher 4.

Rather than building the best possible PC version first and worrying about console optimization later, CD Projekt Red is making sure Ciri’s upcoming adventure works across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S throughout development.

Studio co-CEO Michał Nowakowski says all three versions are already up and running.

The Witcher 4 Already Runs on All Target Platforms

Speaking about the studio’s new development process, Nowakowski explained that The Witcher 4 can already be launched across every platform CD Projekt Red is targeting.

“You come to the studio, you launch Witcher 4 right now,” Nowakowski said. “You can launch it on PC. You can launch it on PS5. You can launch it on Xbox Series X, and it’s going to run.”

That doesn’t mean The Witcher 4 is anywhere close to finished or that its current performance represents what players will eventually receive. Instead, the important difference is that CD Projekt Red is testing and developing the game across its target hardware from an early stage.

That should allow the studio to identify platform-specific performance problems long before the final stages of production.

Cyberpunk 2077 Changed How CD Projekt Red Develops Games

There’s an obvious reason behind the change.

Cyberpunk 2077’s original launch was a technical disaster, particularly on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

While the game performed better on newer hardware, technical issues were widespread enough that Sony eventually removed Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store. It wouldn’t return until around six months later following numerous patches.

Nowakowski explained that CD Projekt Red’s previous philosophy prioritized pushing visual quality as far as possible, with PC serving as the ideal platform for achieving that goal.

“The way the studio was thinking was that we are reaching for the best possible visuals,” he explained. “We want to push the boundaries of what is doable in terms of cinematic feeling and whatnot, and PC was just the best suited rig for that.”

The assumption was that the resulting game could then be scaled down appropriately for console hardware.

That approach had previously worked with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, although Nowakowski now admits the studio “got a bit lucky here and there” when optimizing that game for consoles.

Trying the same strategy with Cyberpunk 2077 produced a very different result.

CDPR No Longer Wants to Leave Optimization Until the End

According to Nowakowski, the studio previously had a “false belief” that adapting a demanding PC experience to weaker hardware later in development wouldn’t present a major problem.

Cyberpunk 2077 proved otherwise.

CD Projekt Red now wants to know that its games actually work on their intended hardware throughout production rather than discovering major technical limitations close to launch.

“Since then, we don’t take chances,” Nowakowski said. “We want to be sure that it actually works.”

It’s a seemingly simple philosophy, but one that could make an enormous difference for a project as technically ambitious as The Witcher 4.

The new approach also extends beyond simply running builds on different consoles.

CD Projekt Red Has Changed How It Tracks Development

CD Projekt Red has also become stricter about meeting internal development milestones.

Nowakowski explained that the studio previously allowed individual targets to slip under the assumption that the team could catch up later.

“For example, technically, we should hit, let’s say, 10 checkmarks,” he explained.

In the past, missing one or two wasn’t necessarily treated as an immediate problem.

“We were like, ‘we’re gonna catch up with that later on.’ Sometimes we did, but sometimes we didn’t, and then two milestones or three milestones down the road, you have like four or five missing checkmarks and it’s not that easy.”

The Witcher 4’s development process is designed to prevent those smaller problems from accumulating into much larger ones as the project approaches release.

For players, that should hopefully mean fewer unpleasant surprises when the game finally arrives.

The Witcher 4 Is Targeting 2028

CD Projekt Red still has plenty of time to work on Ciri’s next adventure.

The Witcher 4 is currently targeting a 2028 release, although a specific launch date hasn’t been announced and development schedules can always change.

The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, representing another major technological change for CD Projekt Red after years of developing its games with the proprietary REDengine.

We’ve already seen an impressive Unreal Engine 5 technology demonstration showing what CDPR is attempting to achieve with its next-generation Witcher experience, but the studio’s latest comments suggest visual ambition isn’t being allowed to overshadow performance this time around.

After everything that happened with Cyberpunk 2077, that’s probably one of the most encouraging development updates CD Projekt Red could provide.

Cyberpunk ultimately recovered through years of updates and the release of Phantom Liberty, but The Witcher 4 has an opportunity to avoid needing that kind of redemption story in the first place.

The Witcher 4 is currently targeting a 2028 release for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with Ciri taking over as the new trilogy’s protagonist.

Does CD Projekt Red’s new approach give you more confidence that The Witcher 4 will deliver a polished launch, or are you waiting to see the final game before trusting the studio again? Let us know in the comments below.