Soapbox: CDPR Needs To Be Careful With Its Marketing For The Witcher 4 On Xbox

This week, CD Projekt Red dropped a 'soft' gameplay reveal of sorts for its upcoming epic The Witcher 4 - and while I've been mighty impressed by what I've seen so far, the Polish developer needs to be careful with its marketing plan moving forward.

You see, shortly after this week's gorgeous Unreal Engine 5 presentation, the team confirmed that it wasn't actual gameplay - even though the initial presentation seemed to suggest that was the case. Prior to CDPR confirming that this showing was just a "tech demo", it was even said that the vertical slice was running on PS5 at 60FPS with ray tracing. As soon as that information came out, I didn't think the full game could hit those targets, and it's quickly looking like that hunch will turn out correct.

Don't get me wrong, I get why vertical slices and tech demos exist - especially for games like this that are being heavily tied into cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5 technology. However, we have a few case studies in why this sort of thing needs to be kept in check; it's important not to over-promise and under-deliver with such a high profile experience like The Witcher 4.

One example that our minds immediately go back to here is the original Watch Dogs. Ubisoft unveiled the game before Xbox One and PS4 had ever been announced - and fans quickly cottoned on to how incredible it looked ahead of launch. Once it did eventually arrive a few years later, the visuals had been notably downgraded from that original vertical slice - and Watch Dogs never really managed to escape that early narrative it had behind it.

On a slightly different but just as important note, CDPR has had its own controversies in the past that it really should be looking to avoid with The Witcher 4 as well. Personally, I never really got over just how poor Cyberpunk 2077 was on Xbox at launch despite massive improvements after release, and the team should be doing its best to avoid anything like this again. Seriously, the game was incredibly problematic on Xbox One.

Look, I have no real doubt that The Witcher 4 will be commercially successful - the series is absolutely massive after its popular Netflix series and the continued success of The Witcher 3. However, CDPR doesn't want to become one of those studios that players can't trust, and this week's UE5 presentation is walking a really tight rope in that regard.

Here's hoping that future presentations for The Witcher 4 show off content from the game itself, and that this upcoming RPG has a nice smooth launch - when it eventually arrives on Xbox.

What do you think of this situation, folks? Talk to us about the future of The Witcher 4 down below.