The Game Awards 2024 Reveal
The cinematic reveal trailer for The Witcher IV, debuted at The Game Awards on December 12, 2024.
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On December 12, 2024, CD Projekt Red officially revealed The Witcher IV with a nearly six-minute cinematic trailer at The Game Awards in Los Angeles. The trailer was the culmination of over two years of anticipation following the initial announcement in March 2022.
The trailer was pre-rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. While not representative of in-game graphics, it served as a target for the visual quality CDPR is aiming for. The studio collaborated with Platige Image, the Polish visual effects studio that has produced cinematics for the Witcher franchise since the original game in 2007.
The trailer follows Ciri arriving at a remote northern village called Stromford. The villagers are preparing a young woman named Mioni as a ritual sacrifice to appease a creature they worship as a god. Ciri has taken a witcher contract to kill the beast.
Ciri drinks a witcher potion that activates her mutations, with her eyes shifting to the characteristic cat-like form. She descends into a cave system beneath the village to confront the creature. The monster, later identified as the Bauk, uses fog and voice mimicry to disorient its prey.
After a tense encounter, Ciri defeats the Bauk using her swords and Source magic, drawing water from cave walls and converting it into an electrical discharge. The trailer ends tragically: after the creature is slain, a villager kills Mioni anyway, unable to accept that the sacrifice ritual was meaningless. The scene reinforces the series' recurring theme that humans can be as monstrous as the creatures witchers hunt.
The final moments feature Geralt's voice in a brief narration, confirming his presence in the game. The trailer concludes with the title card and the tagline "The Witcher IV."
Ciri is the protagonist and a fully trained witcher
She wears the medallion of the School of the Lynx
She wields the silver sword Zireael
She uses a chain weapon as a secondary weapon
She can cast Source magic beyond standard Witcher Signs
Geralt of Rivia will appear in the game (voice heard at the end)
The game is set in Kovir, in the far north of the Continent
Alchemy and potions return as gameplay mechanics
The trailer marked the debut of Ciara Berkeley as the new voice of Ciri, replacing Jo Wyatt from The Witcher 3. Doug Cockle reprises his role as Geralt. Game director Sebastian Kalemba stated: "We're kicking off a brand-new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story. It feels so good to finally be able to say those words."
The trailer has the track "No Gods, Only Monsters," composed by P.T. Adamczyk with lyrics by CDPR writer Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz. The song was released on streaming platforms following the trailer debut. Adamczyk and Marcin Przybylowicz are confirmed as the composers for The Witcher IV, both returning from The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.
The reveal trailer generated massive attention. It became one of the most-viewed trailers from The Game Awards 2024. The confirmation of Ciri as the protagonist was widely praised by fans and media, with many noting that this direction felt like a natural continuation of The Witcher 3's story.