The Witcher 3 was released 7 years ago and, in that time, its stories and gameplay have managed to stay fresh. Its graphics, however, have started to age a little.
We know that there is a complete edition on the way that includes a free next-gen update, but when will it arrive? Here's what we know about The Witcher 3 next-gen update so far.
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UPDATED - Next-Gen Update Coming Soon
The Witcher Twitter account has officially announced the next-gen update will be launching in on Wednesday, 14 December 2022.
READ MORE: The Witcher 3 Next Gen Update COUNTDOWN - release date, time, and more
Next-Gen Release Delayed
The Next-Gen release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been delayed. It is currently being worked on in-house and they seem to need more time to perfect it.
As of right now, we don't know when we will see it.
New Witcher Game Confirmed
In some surprise news, a brand new Witcher game has been confirmed by CDPROJEKTRED. You can read the full blog right here.
This is a confirmation of the future of the game and some pretty exciting news.
New PEGI listing updates
GamesRadar has reported that The Witcher 3's PEGI listing has been updated for next-gen consoles. This is something that CDPR would need to do, due to the games being re-released. However, the date on the PEGI listing is "19/10/21".
Does this mean The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is dropping on next-gen consoles today?!
Well... They reached out to CDPR and were offered the following statement:
" PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S are new platforms for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so the game had to be submitted for age classification on these platforms specifically. This is standard procedure and the date mentioned on PEGI's website is the rating's issue date."
Although it doesn't look like 4K Geralt is dropping today, we should be getting closer to a confirmed release date with this PEGI listing update.
Story & Content
This might not come as a surprise to many of you, but The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will have both major expansions.
The Witcher 3 has been out for a little while now. It originally launched in 2015 and remains one of the best action-RPG titles to ever be released.
Since this 2015 release, two major expansions and a slew of smaller content DLC additions have been added to The Witcher 3's growing content library and it looks like all of these will be coming to the next-gen version of The Witcher 3 on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
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But, why wouldn't it? At this point, the Game of the Year Edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is so cheap on sales that it wouldn't make any sense not to pick it up.
There is no word that any additional content is being created for the game, but with an average time-to-beat of over 100 hours... It really doesn't need it.
Graphical Improvements
As you might imagine, The Witcher 3 on the PS5 and Xbox Series X is going to be a little more than just a re-release.
Although we haven't heard anything too specific for a little while now, we do know that the standard array of graphical improvements will be coming to the next-gen version of the game.
This means we're getting ray-tracing, faster load times, smoother frame rates and most-likely 4K, or at least Upscaled 4K, visuals.
" 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"
READ MORE: How Does The Switcher Shape Up Against Console Versions?
The new version of The Witcher 3 was announced last September before both next-gen consoles were even out, but we can't imagine this has changed at all.
More Witcher Content?
We know that we've got a second season for Netflix's The Witcher series, but what about Witcher content from CDPR themselves?
Well, following a discussion on how they will operate going forwards, CDPR shared this rather basic 2021 roadmap with us.
READ MORE: Is The Witcher 3 On Xbox Game Pass?
It doesn't showcase too much but it does confirm that the Mobile AR title The Witcher: Monster Slayer is due in 2021 alongside the Witcher 3 on PS5 and Series X.
Gwent is also a thing, but a lot of you will be nonplussed about why this still a thing and we're not sure what to tell you.
Looking into 2022, it seems like The Witcher series will become much more of a focus for CDPR going forwards so... Could The Witcher 4 be on the horizon?
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