Epic showed off Unreal Engine 5 with an impressive Witcher 4 tech demo
An ongoing tradition at Epic's big keynotes is a gorgeous tech demo that shows off what its game engine is capable of. For this year's State of Unreal, the company turned to The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. This new demo a beautiful glimpse at its fantasy world, filled with blood, fire, and monsters — and more importantly, a new horse.
The demo was built using Unreal Engine 5.6, and shows new protagonist Ciri exploring some forested lands and a marketplace known as Valdrest. Epic says the demo is designed in part to show off how the latest iteration can handle both bustling scenes and foliage in an open-world setting. It also shows how much horse technology has improved since The Witcher 3. Epic says that the demo is running on a base model PS5 at 60 frames per second, with raytracing enabled, and the presentation included a live demonstration, with the developers playing the game on stage.
And a handful of images from the demo:
We've known that CDPR had switched to UE5 for its next Witcher game as far back as 2022, when it announced a partnership with Epic, likely as a result of the technical issues that plagued Cyberpunk 2077 's launch. Last year the developer officially revealed The Witcher 4 — with Ciri replacing Geralt in the lead — with a cinematic trailer. There's no word yet on when the game will be launching.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
14 hours ago
- Business Insider
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says 'the long national nightmare of the Apple tax' is over
Tim Sweeney won, and he's out celebrating. After a five-year battle with Apple, Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, won a massive victory in court last month. Apple must tear down its proverbial walled garden and allow for more competition and payment methods on its App Store. It will no longer be able to take a 27% fee from US developers who direct users to make purchases externally. And that means that Epic's popular game, Fortnite, is coming back to iOS. "Apple's stay is denied by the 9th Circuit Court. The long national nightmare of the Apple tax is ended," Sweeney said on X on Wednesday. "May next week's WWDC be the Apple-led celebration of freedom that developers and users have long deserved." In the comments, he added: "Apple is free to make money by fairly competing to offer services such as payments and ads to willing buyers." Apple is hosting its annual Worldwide Developers Conference at its Apple Park campus next week, where it usually unveils new products and platforms. Last year, it unveiled Apple Intelligence, a new personal intelligence system that incorporates generative AI into writing tools, message summaries, and email suggestions. It's not clear how the ruling will impact conference programming — Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Apple has said it will comply with the ruling, though it also plans to appeal the court order. In a blog post on Thursday, Apple issued a defense of its global app emporium. "The global App Store ecosystem facilitated $1.3 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2024," it said, noting that for 90% of the transactions it facilitated, developers did not pay any commission to Apple. The App Store attracts over 813 million average weekly visitors worldwide, and spending across three categories — digital goods and services, physical goods and services, and in-app advertising — has more than doubled since 2019, according to Apple. Spending on in-app advertising, especially, has "helped keep many apps free or low-cost for users," the company said. Sweeney, however, is looking forward to a new, more egalitarian era for the App Store, and anticipates two levels of change. The first, as he described to BI's Peter Kafka, will be that "all users are free to learn about better deals from all developers, and all developers are free to not just accept payments outside of the app on the web, but to tell users about those alternative ways to pay and to give consumers better deals. That's a key economic gain here." The second is that "Apple would step up and compete, give developers a much better deal than 30%, and actually engage in competition," he said.
CNBC
14 hours ago
- CNBC
Apple's woes deepen following Epic Games ruling. Here's where we stand on the stock now
Apple suffered a major blow in its bid to alleviate one of Jim Cramer's biggest worries about the tech giant: its legal fight with Fortnite maker Epic Games. A U.S. appeals court late Wednesday rejected Apple's plea to halt mandated changes to its App Store that the company has warned could cost it "substantial sums." "Apple's had a bad streak. This is just more negativity," Jim said Thursday. Shares of Apple fell about 0.7% in Thursday's session, trading slightly above $201 apiece. The stock is down roughly 19% so far this year. The ruling Wednesday evening marked the latest setback for Apple in its long-running legal battle with Epic Games, which first sued the iPhone maker in 2020 in an attempt to force Apple to loosen its grip on purchases in apps that utilize its iOS operating system. In late April, a U.S. district judge said Apple was violating a four-year-old ruling that required Apple to change the way it charges commissions on in-app purchases. The solution that Apple implemented in early 2024 , for the first time, allowed developers to include links to external websites where iPhone app users could put in their payment info. However, Apple still charged a 27% commission on in-app transactions that linked out for payments and told developers how these links should be presented. The judge's April ruling said Apple needed to stop those practices. Now, Apple's request to have that decision paused has been denied. Wall Street analysts say this could dent Apple's financials – albeit not by that much. For example, Morgan Stanley estimated that 2% of Apple's earnings per share, 10% of App Store revenue and 3% of overall revenue for its important services division are at risk if the ruling is upheld. The basis for those forecasts is the firm's proprietary survey from May, which found that 28% of U.S. iPhone users are "extremely likely" to circumvent in-app purchases in the App Store. Despite the Epic ruling late last month, App Store growth has remained solid in May. Net revenues for the App Store increased 9.6% year over year in May, compared with an 8% year-over-year gain in April, according to Morgan Stanley, citing Sensor Tower data. "To date, our view has been the App Store injunction is a minor risk to the Apple story / a longer-tailed risk, as changing nearly 20 years of learned consumer behavior doesn't happen overnight," the analysts wrote in a Thursday note. The firm reiterated its buy-equivalent rating on the stock. JPMorgan shared similar sentiments. The analysts projected a "moderation" in services revenue growth and an up to 3% hit to earnings per share. "Although the denial of a stay is a headwind for Apple, we continue to believe the magnitude of impact is likely to be materially lower than currently being feared by investors," wrote the JPMorgan analysts, who also have a buy-equivalent rating on shares. While Jim indicated Thursday that Apple taking a 2% to 3% hit to EPS from the Epic case is a fair assumption, he expressed frustration with the overall implications of the ruling. "I think it is outrageous that they can use Apple as the equivalent of a common carrier, a Greyhound bus," Jim said Thursday. The Apple-Epic saga is one of the reasons why the stock has become such a worrisome position in recent months, Jim explained during our May Monthly Meeting. But it is not the only threat facing Apple's services division, which has long been a big part of our investment thesis in the company. The business — home to the App Store, AppleCare, ApplePay, iCloud and content subscriptions like Apple TV+ — is coveted for the recurring nature of its revenue streams and high margins. AAPL YTD mountain Apple's year-to-date stock performance. The other big risk to Apple's services business is Alphabet -owned Google's legal feud with the Justice Department. The antitrust case threatens Google's massive annual payments to Apple in exchange for being the default search provider on iPhone and iPad devices. In 2022, that was worth $20 billion for Apple. During the May Monthly Meeting , Jim described the matter as potentially "easy money gone," adding that investors "need to be concerned." Apple's woes don't stop there, though. Jim has an Apple worry even bigger than services growth: higher tariffs on electronics imports into the U.S. Last month, President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Apple by at least 25% for iPhones not made in the U.S. That does not bode well for the Club name because it's the company's biggest money maker. Plus, it's nearly impossible for Apple to get this done in the short term as the majority of its manufacturing is done overseas. CEO Tim Cook has tried to reduce Apple's reliance on China by diversifying its supply chain and expanding production into India. It hasn't been enough to appease Trump, though. All of this comes ahead of Apple's annual developers conference, which kicks off Monday. It has historically coincided with the start of a seasonally strong period for the stock. Investors will be closely watching what Apple says about its generative artificial intelligence system, dubbed Apple Intelligence. We previously thought that the suite of AI tools would usher in a much-needed upgrade cycle for the iPhone. This hasn't been the case as the rollout of new flashy features have been staggered and delayed. Still, we're not planning to bail on Apple shares down here. While there are clearly issues hanging over the stock, there's no denying its products are among the best consumer electronics in the world. As long as people aren't trading in their iPhones and leaving the Apple ecosystem, the ability to make money off that huge user base remains intact. And that's reason enough to stay in the stock. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Forbes
15 hours ago
- Forbes
Ciri Looks Like Her Old Self In New ‘The Witcher 4' Tech Demo
The Witcher 4 When the first trailer for CD Projekt RED's upcoming The Witcher 4 came out, a lot of fans expressed concerns about Ciri becoming the game's protagonist. Some of this was lore-based, with fans questioning how Ciri could become a full-blown Witcher given her Elder blood. Others thought the character model just looked off. I was among these – not because this new version of Ciri was 'ugly' but because she looked nothing whatsoever like Ciri from The Witcher 3, which was kind of strange. She didn't look like an older version of the character, either, as some people claimed. She looked like a different character altogether. Unrecognizable. (And not because she looked more like her voice actor, either, which she does not in either version). In the developer's new tech demo, major changes to Ciri's facial structure reveal a return to a character who looks much more similar to the model in The Witcher 3. She looks a bit older, which makes sense, but there's no denying the resemblance. I bring this up because I think it shows CDPR is willing to make adjustments based on fan feedback, which is a good thing. I'm also incredibly impressed with the new voice actor, Ciara Berkeley, who does a great job playing a somewhat older Ciri. She takes over for the excellent Jo Wyatt. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder The tech demo itself looks fantastic, but it's important that this is a demo – not actual gameplay from the final game. Just a slice carved off to show the world, polished and primed. It certainly shows off what Unreal Engine 5 is capable of, and frankly if the final product looks even remotely close to this good, I'll be deeply impressed. If it manages to run at 4k / 60fps on modern consoles, I'll do a happy dance (though I'll be playing on PC, naturally). But I remain skeptical, not just because CDPR has certainly let us down in the past (thank you Cyberpunk 2077 launch!) but because I've been doing this for a long time, and I've seen countless tech demos that look far, far better than the final product. They promise the world and then deliver . . . less. But hey, I'd happily be wrong on this count. The game doesn't just look amazing, it has such enormous attention to detail, like the musculature of Ciri's horse, Kelpie, and the thick, living forests using 'nanite foliage' technology. It certainly looks better than those crazy trees in The Witcher 3. The good news is that Epic Games is working closely with CDPR on this game, which should translate into the most efficient and accurate use of Unreal Engine 5 possible. The reactive nature of the NPCs in the market is incredibly impressive, and I wonder if some of Epic's progress with AI in Fortnite will carry over into The Witcher 4. Whatever the case, watching this tech demo makes me want to live in this world. I suspect that when the game finally comes out, I will do just that. If you're looking for more Witcher content in the meantime, I've really been enjoying Viva La Dirt League's Witcher sketches, which are in many ways better than Netflix's series.
