Recently, CDPR Co-CEO Michał Nowakowski gave an interview to GameDeveloper, reflecting on the lessons learned from the console launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and publicly revealing new cross-platform development standards for The Witcher 4, with the goal of completely avoiding performance failures at launch.
Nowakowski recalled that during the development of Cyberpunk 2077, the team prioritized the PC platform, aiming for ultimate cinematic visuals. They mistakenly underestimated the difficulty of downgrading and adapting the game for consoles, hoping to fix console issues later. Historical experience has proven that this "PC first, console port later" approach continuously accumulates technical debt, with repair costs rising significantly towards the end of the project, ultimately resulting in a severe launch disaster plagued by numerous bugs and performance crashes on consoles.
CDPR has now completely overhauled its development pipeline, establishing strict platform validation metrics: parallel synchronous development and testing for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S versions. The previous model of prioritizing the PC version and adapting for consoles later is no longer permitted. If any platform fails to meet predefined technical checkpoints during development, the team must halt further progress and prioritize resolving bugs and performance issues on that platform, never leaving problems to be fixed collectively in the late stages of the project.
Nowakowski stated that the current version of The Witcher 4 can now be launched and run directly on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. "When you come into the studio and start up The Witcher 4, whether it's on PC, PS5, or XSX, the game runs properly." This signifies ensuring basic multi-platform viability from the early stages of development, rather than starting console adaptation only close to release.
Of course, Nowakowski also candidly admitted that as a large-scale Unreal Engine 5 open-world RPG, achieving a completely bug-free The Witcher 4 is difficult. However, the team aims to prevent catastrophic launch disasters like those seen with Cyberpunk 2077 through procedural improvements. CDPR is also deeply involved in fixing underlying Unreal Engine 5 issues, leveraging engine-level optimizations to ensure the stability of the open world.