Today, CD Projekt Red shared a Strategy Update that confirmed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt‘s upgrades for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are still launching in 2021. CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 3’s next-gen updates last September, promising a “technically enhanced version” of the award-winning RPG’s Complete Edition. Notably, players can expect the development team to implement ray-tracing and faster loading times across the base game, both narrative expansions, and all other DLC releases.
There is a bit of confusion that CD Projekt Red has yet to clear up, though, particularly with regards to the upgrade path for players who already own copies of The Witcher 3 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While CDPR did note that existing owners will receive a free upgrade for their respective console version, the marketing materials only list the RPG’s Complete Edition. What does that mean for fans who purchased the base game, then? At present, that much remains a mystery.
During today’s Strategy Update, CD Projekt Red confirmed the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S updates for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 remain on track for their previously promised 2021 releases. However, there’s still no word on when exactly The Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade will go live. The company also noted that something known as The Witcher: Monster Slayer is in the works, along with “further development of GWENT.” CD Projekt IR’s official Twitter account shared the following slide from the presentation:
Evidently, CD Projekt Red has a packed year ahead of it. While the studio will continue supporting Cyberpunk 2077 with the necessary optimization-related patches, the crew is also working on free DLC offerings and next-gen updates, all of which are expected to launch in the back half of this year.
A recent ransomware attack on CDPR affected workflow quite a bit, forcing the studio to delay its original release window for Cyberpunk 2077’s Patch 1.2 by several weeks. Fortunately, the update launched across all platforms yesterday, indicating the team has been able to regain at least some semblance of normalcy. But while CDPR seems confident in its updated content roadmap for the year, it remains to be seen how else the hack may have impacted internal operations.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is out now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One; PS5 and Xbox Series X|S upgrades launch sometime this year.
