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What do you need to know before The Witcher IV? Ciri is the new saga’s protagonist, and the story takes place a few years after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The reveal trailer establishes a witcher contract shaped by fear and sacrifice; a separate 2025 technology demo introduces the region of Kovir but is explicitly labeled “Not Actual Gameplay.” The studio has not yet explained how the earlier game’s multiple endings affect the new story.
What is confirmed about The Witcher IV?
CD PROJEKT RED revealed The Witcher IV on December 13, 2024, as the first game in a new Witcher saga and the successor to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Previously known by its development codename Polaris, it is described as a single-player, open-world RPG developed with Unreal Engine 5. The studio’s announcement calls Ciri “the heart of the story,” and the official game page says players take on her role. Official Witcher IV site · CD PROJEKT RED’s reveal announcement
Ciri is Geralt’s adopted daughter, but this is not being presented as another Geralt-led game. CD PROJEKT RED has confirmed Geralt will return as a character; his specific role remains undisclosed. There is no confirmation in the cited announcements that he is playable or a co-protagonist. Xbox Wire’s interview with the developers
How does the story connect to The Witcher 3?
Narrative director Philipp Weber told Xbox Wire that the new game takes place “a few years” after The Witcher 3. In the reveal trailer, Ciri has mutated eyes. Weber said this indicates she has completed the Trial of the Grasses and become a witcher.
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The Witcher 3 has multiple endings, and the developers say they intend to address them and honor player choice. They have not explained how the endings carry forward or what the consequences will be. They also describe the game as a new-saga entry point, rather than requiring players to have completed the earlier game. Xbox Wire interview
Ciri’s approach is not simply Geralt’s repeated
The developers draw a distinction between the two witchers. Weber describes Geralt as someone who has formed a personal code through experience, while Ciri is still working out how she will respond to difficult choices. Game director Sebastian Kalemba characterizes her as passionate, determined, and deeply involved in the story. That points to a different perspective on witcher work; it does not reveal the outcomes of future quests.
Weber puts Ciri’s outlook this way: “Ciri is someone who won’t accept that fate is just given to you, you always have to fight back, and sometimes that’s the right thing to do.” Xbox Wire interview
Rank #2
- Trained from early childhood and mutated to gain superhuman skills, strength, and reflexes, witchers are a counterbalance to the monster-infested world in which they live.
- Built for endless adventure, the massive open world of The Witcher sets new standards in terms of size, depth, and complexity.
- Take on the most important contract of your life: to track down the child of prophecy, the key to saving or destroying this world.
What happens in the reveal trailer?
The cinematic reveal presents a remote village terrorized for generations by a monster that demands human sacrifices. The villagers prepare a young woman for a ritual; Ciri arrives on a witcher contract and tries both to kill the creature and save her. The people she is trying to help are suspicious of her, making the encounter a conflict about prejudice and superstition as well as a monster hunt. CD PROJEKT RED frames the story around the idea that “monsters come in all forms.” Reveal announcement
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Xbox Wire identifies the village as Stromford, the young woman as Mioni, and the monster as a Bauk in its discussion of the trailer. These names describe that revealed story; the cited material does not establish broader lore about the Bauk or Stromford. Xbox Wire interview
Game director Sebastian Kalemba described the direction as: “We’re kicking off a brand-new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story!” CD PROJEKT RED’s reveal announcement
Rank #3
- If you buy this game, you will receive a free next-gen update on December 14th!
- Play as a highly trained monster slayer for hire.
- Built for endless adventure, the massive open world of The Witcher sets new standards in terms of size, depth and complexity.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year edition brings together the base game and all the additional content released to date.
What do we know about Kovir?
On June 3, 2025, CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games presented an Unreal Engine 5 technical demo following Ciri and her horse, Kelpie, through the rugged mountains and forests of Kovir to the port town of Valdrest. The studio says Kovir will make its first appearance in the video-game series in The Witcher IV. Technical-demo announcement
The presentation showcased Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage, Mass AI crowd scaling, FastGeo Streaming, and ML Deformer. CD PROJEKT RED said the demo ran on PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second; that is a specification for this demonstration, not a performance promise for the finished game or other platforms. The official site labels its technical presentation “Not Actual Gameplay,” so its scenes and features should not be treated as a final-gameplay guarantee. Official Witcher IV site · Technical-demo announcement
Do you need to read the books or play earlier games?
The official Witcher IV site says the games are set in the universe created by Andrzej Sapkowski’s books. That establishes the setting’s literary roots, but it does not prescribe a reading order or say that the books and games share identical continuity in every detail. The cited sources do not establish that you must read the novels or finish a particular earlier game to play The Witcher IV. Sapkowski’s Witcher series is optional background for readers who want more of the world. Official Witcher IV site
Quick Recap
What has not been revealed?
- How the game will handle each of The Witcher 3’s endings.
- What role Geralt will play beyond appearing as a character.
- A complete plot summary, the full map, or the game’s quest systems.
- A release date or final launch-platform list in the cited sources.
- Final performance across platforms; the 2025 demo is not evidence of that.
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