CDPR’s work on The Witcher 4 is finally official after last week’s incredibly exciting reveal trailer. The team has also confirmed Ciri as the new face of the IP, marking the first step toward a trilogy based on the character.

Among other changes, The Witcher 4 is set to use Unreal Engine 5 for groundbreaking visuals that will make full use of future GPUs like the RTX 5090. Unfortunately, this choice might make the game a bit too ambitious for the Xbox Series S. During a recent interview, CDPR teased the decision to potentially skip this console.

Why it matters: The Witcher 4 seems to be targeting a new standard for gaming visuals, making it challenging to fit the game within the Xbox Series S’ limited hardware.

CDPR was recently asked about its thoughts on The Witcher 4 running on consoles like the Xbox Series S. Supporting the Xbox Series S is still mandatory for studios looking to launch games on Xbox, even if exceptions have been made in the past.

Anyhow, CDPR’s response doesn’t seem too encouraging. For starters, the developer failed to confirm whether it would support the budget Microsoft console directly. Moreover, director Sebastian Kalemba stated that he could not share any specifics on the matter.

I cannot, right now, tell you more specifics regarding that.

-Sebastian Kalemba

The most interesting element about this response is the fact that CDPR is well aware of the Xbox Series S’ capabilities. Both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 have been updated for the console, so the team should have a decent grasp of Microsoft’s budget hardware.

This makes the response quite puzzling since one would expect CDPR to know whether its vision for The Witcher 4 would fit within the constraints of the Xbox Series S. One could even say that the hesitant response is not a great sign for those looking forward to playing The Witcher 4 on the Xbox Series S.

Another interesting element might be Microsoft’s decision to launch next-generation consoles much earlier than anticipated. If new Xbox hardware, rumored for 2026, is already available by the time The Witcher 4 arrives, skipping the Xbox Series S would be even more of an obvious move for CDPR.