In what may be the biggest reveal of the night, CD Projekt Red‘s long-awaited sequel to The Witcher III: Wild Hunt debuted during The Game Awards 2024. The Witcher IV is set to tell the story of Geralt’s adopted daughter.
Although no gameplay was shown during the trailer, it seems the focus will be on combining the methodical monster hunting from the last game with Siri’s magical abilities. This will likely be balanced out with story elements that feel as dark and moody as the last game.
“We’re kicking off a brand-new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story!” said Sebastian Kalemba, Game Director. “It feels so good to finally be able to say those words — for the longest time we knew that we wanted Ciri to be the protagonist of The Witcher IV; it just felt natural to us and we believe that Ciri deserves it.”
In the nearly six-minute trailer, viewers are introduced to Ciri, the adopted daughter of Geralt of Rivia, as she takes on a Witcher contract in a remote village that has been terrorized for generations by a fearsome monster demanding human sacrifices. Framed as a short, self-contained Witcher story, the trailer showcases Ciri’s new abilities and tools, including a chain and advanced magic powers.
The trailer is pre-rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. Powered by the same tech that The Witcher IV is built on, using assets and models from the game itself, it aims to provide players with a cinematic look at the kind of experience the game is aspiring to provide.
What was a nice surprise was hearing Doug Cockle as Geralt at the end of the trailer, suggesting he will have some role to play in this new experience. No details were given on the release window for The Witcher VI.
