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The Witcher 4 First Trailer Revealed At The Game Awards

The next entry in critically acclaimed fantasy RPG series sees Ciri take front and center.

52 Comments

After announcing The Witcher 4 was in full production late last month, CD Projekt Red has revealed a first look at the next entry in the critically acclaimed fantasy-RPG series. Revealed at The Game Awards 2024, the first trailer for The Witcher 4 sees former protagonist Geralt's adopted daughter Ciri take the lead. The studio has yet to announce a release date, but based on The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley prefacing the trailer by stating it offered a look at "the next decade of gaming," it seems likely we'll be waiting quite awhile.

The trailer follows Ciri as she attempts to save a young woman from a sacrificial ritual. As she slinks deeper into the woods, a monster covered in flesh and excess limbs attacks. Though Ciri is able to slay the creature, things don't go quite as planned. As this first look at The Witcher 4 is entirely cinematic, we can't yet say how Ciri will control or gameplay will differ from the series' previous entries. Earlier this year, however, CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski stated the upcoming game won't just be "Witcher 3 in new clothing."

While Ciri will be taking the role of protagonist in The Witcher 4, it seems we will still get a least a bit of Geralt. Despite voice actor Doug Cockle stating that he was unsure if Geralt would be in the game, the White Wolf himself can be heard in the last few seconds of the trailer.

According to CD Projekt Red, over 400 people are currently working on The Witcher 4. For more details on the upcoming game, you can check out everything we know about The Witcher 4 so far. We've also included some of the first stills from the game below.

In addition to The Witcher 4, CD Projekt Red has also confirmed they are working on a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. For more coverage on The Game Awards 2024, be sure to check out our list of all the biggest announcements of the night.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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OldDadGamer

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OldDadGamer  Moderator

I wonder why they changed the voice actress for her. Nothing against the voice in the trailer, seems fine, but Jo Wyatt has been doing this a long time and I liked her as Ciri in TW3.

Money, most likely.

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Dominicwow

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To everyone complaining about Ciri being the protagonist. Witcher 3 had phenomenal writing. Give it a chance. Ciri could turn out to be an excellent decision. Too often these kinds of decisions are made to pander to the audience but CDPR isn’t one of those developers imo. If the game is trash and Ciri held back the game, then complain. But until we know for sure, put it out if your head, play some good games, and judge Witcher 4 once it’s out

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davidb50100

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Edited By davidb50100

Listen. Hoping to shock us that it's a woman instead of a man (behind the hood) and that they can do everything a man can (or better) is getting a bit long in the tooth. It's so boring. It's so corny. It's pathetic. HARD pass for me (and a giant yawn).

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@davidb50100: I mean they basically spent all last game building up Ciri and establishing why she can be a badass in this one. I feel like she earned this and it’s not trying shock anybody.

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Deckard26364

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@davidb50100: played the game already did ya?

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NBK87MX

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I miss Geralt of Rivia…

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@NBK87MX: He’ll show up in the game.

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NBK87MX

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@mogan:

Will we be able to play as Geralt or only as Ciri?

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@NBK87MX: Sounds like only Ciri, but CDPR did say Geralt will be in the game. Maybe you'll get to play as him some too, but they're saying Ciri is the main character in The Witcher 4.

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NBK87MX

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@mogan:

Thank you for getting back to me and for letting me know, and I appreciate it.

I figure it will be like Assassin's Creed Syndicate, where we could play as Evie and Jacob during the campaign missions. What do you think?

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mogan

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Edited By mogan  Moderator

@NBK87MX: Here’s the article where CDPR talks about Ciri being the main character. It doesn’t sound like a Syndicate situation to me; at most I’d guess it’ll be the reverse of The Witcher 3, where Ciri was playable in a few specific parts. Sounds like they’re planning a new Ciri focused trilogy.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/witcher-4-dev-explains-why-ciris-the-star-this-time-confirms-geralt-will-appear/1100-6528460/

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NBK87MX

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Edited By NBK87MX

@mogan:

Thank you so much for sending me the article, and I really appreciate it!

It seems to me that it will take many years for the game to be released now.

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dunpeal83

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Why is she fighting with swords when she could easily zip a pair of laser pistols and own the monsters in seconds? With characters like that you write a very convienient plot device to nerf her or you're just playing on godmode.

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Midna

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Going to have to upgrade me PC.

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Thebadjesus

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Edited By Thebadjesus

Cool. 2033 is going to be a great year for games.

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OldDadGamer

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OldDadGamer  Moderator

@thebadjesus: Funny, I heard the over/under was 2038. I'll put you down for the under.

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faithxvoid

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Unfortunately it will be a smeared TSAA mess because of unreal 5. Wish they would have continues with their in house engine. It would be better for gaming as a whole.

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Tiwill44

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@faithxvoid: In case this helps, if you're on PC you can add "r.AntiAliasingMethod=0" to the "engine.ini" file of any Unreal Engine 5 game, and it will disable TAA entirely. Unfortunately, devs use TAA to mask a lot of the dithering used as a shortcut for optimization, so it still won't result in a good looking game, but at least it'll look crisp.

...Unless the game uses Lumen in software ray-tracing mode. Then you might be stuck with ghosting in certain situations (Stalker 2 has this issue indoors, when light is coming from outside).

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faithxvoid

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@Tiwill44: Thanks for the suggestion. Ya, I've tried this and the dithering tends to be off the charts.

All the UE tech reminds me of rasterized shadows when they started pumping games full of them 20 years ago. It was just distracting and ugly..

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Sound_Demon

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🤣🤣🤣🤣

You know why I'm laughing.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@Sound_Demon: Not really.

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Sushiglutton

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Epic trailer 😁! Can't wait for more Witcher! In the meantime Crimson Desert looked amazing too!

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

Ciri, you probably should have explained what you were trying to do first.

Anyway, looks cool. I was kiiind of hoping we'd get a character creator and play somebody new, and CDPR would make the game more about the world than about characters from the books who've already done a lot of stuff and have a lot of baggage. But hopefully playing as Ciri means we'll get to use more powerful magic.

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Presidential

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@mogan: they could of made a pretty cool intro segment for the character creator around you becoming a Witcher. Hopefully this doesn't feel like treading too much old ground, the trailer was pretty great, and I'm looking forward to this none the less, whenever that may be.

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lodoss900

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@mogan: great insight - exploring the world vs the character. After 15 years of games tv shows etc about Geralt; kinda done with it

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attirex

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Meh. Bargain bin purchase.

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Spartan_418

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@attirex: There's a likelihood that this will be next-gen only, where there are no more physical games on PlayStation or Xbox. If it doesn't get a physical release then it can't end up in bargain bins.

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deactivated-67f1e74537035

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@attirex: go play fortnite, kid.

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JoeCollin

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@attirex: all of that edge. Give it to us. I know you have more.

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JVII

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SO SICK. Can't wait.

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BeefoTheBold

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Edited By BeefoTheBold

This right here is how you pass the torch to a new protagonist for a long running franchise.

You make the new one look just as cool and as fun to play as the old one.

Not like a snotty, adolescent brat like Atreus. (God of War)

Or a blithering idiot man-child like Ichiban Kasuga (Like A Dragon/Yakuza)

Ciri looks like a total badass and like she would have all of the old Gerald moveset plus some new toys and a personality that isn't offputting at the same time.

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JoeCollin

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Edited By JoeCollin

Holy sh*t, what is this? Forged in God’s very flame… All the crap filled the gap while I waited to begin the adventure of my life in the land of Velennnnn.

Hell yes. Looks fantastic, exactly as expected. Here’s to waiting 5 more years, though 😂.

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LTKCentaur

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Let’s effing go!! Ciri looks so awesome here! Curious when she got the ability to drink the potions and how old she’s supposed to be here. Mid to late 30s maybe? That’s a long time between any of the 3rd games endings and this if that’s how old she is.

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