Two months ago, CD Projekt Red announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is widely considered to be one of the best and deepest open-world RPGs of all time, will be playable on Microsoft and Sony’s next-gen consoles with visual and technical improvements. The next-gen upgrade will be free for those who have already purchased the game on current-gen consoles.
Both Sony and Microsoft are set to release their respective next-gen consoles later this week, but prior to them being launched, a YouTuber named Rubhen925 shared some gameplay from the Xbox Series X version of The Witcher 3, which showed the game’s lightning-fast load times, as the game loads almost instantly. You can check out the gameplay video below.
After announcing the next-gen upgrade for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, developer CD Projekt Red described what will be different in the Xbox Series X/PlayStation 5 version of the popular open-world RPG.
“Developed to take advantage of the most powerful gaming hardware, the next-gen edition of the game will feature a range of visual and technical improvements — including ray tracing and faster loading times — across the base game, both expansions, and all extra content.
“The next generation edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will release as a standalone purchase for PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, as well as a free update for everyone who already owns the game on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.”
On top of upgrading The Witcher 3’s main story, CD Projekt Red’s next-gen enhancements will also carry over to the game’s two DLC expansions: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. However, aside from the visual enhancements, the next-gen upgrade won’t include additional single-player content.
Even though the third installment to The Witcher franchise ended up being a massive hit for CD Projekt Red, the Poland-based developers decided against immediately following it up with a fourth game, instead opting to develop a new IP: Cyberpunk 2077. Unfortunately, their new title has been delayed several times, the most recent of which pushed the title back to next month.
Most assume that we will, at some point, get a fourth Witcher game, but for now, CD Projekt Red’s main focus is the current-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077. Then, following its release, the team will then shift to the next-gen version of their upcoming open-world FPS, so it’s probably going to be quite a while before they even hint at their next project, which could end up being The Witcher 4.
