The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt next-gen update launch time

CD Projekt has announced that the incredible The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won’t release for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S until H2 2021. This means that fans will be waiting for at least three more months until one of the greatest RPGs of the last generation gets a next-gen upgrade.

The announcement came from the company’s Lead PR Manager on Twitter. It was no doubt an effort to get the news out to as many fans as possible before it was missed under the news of the coming day.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a beloved game and the best in The Witcher series to date. CD Projekt Red revealed that a next-gen version was coming last year, but nothing has happened between then and now apart from this confirmation of a vague release window.

This probably has a lot to do with the flop of Cyberpunk 2077. The game will have become the developer’s top priority as soon as the poor press started to come out. Fixing the game has been its major concern since December last year.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was the complete opposite. The game was critically acclaimed and well-reviewed at launch. Consumers still pick it up today to replay or as a new fan. Most agree that it’s the most accessible RPG ever made.

The game also redefined what modern RPGs are. It introduced tropes that are now seen in almost every RPG. The fact that most developers keep pointing back to it as a source of inspiration only helps.

CD Projekt Red has also just announced that it is reorganising how it develops games. Starting next year, the company will develop multiple properties and expansions alongside each other. Until now, the practice has been to focus on one per six-year development cycle.

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 must have been a wake-up call, and now the developer is answering it. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will undoubtedly sell well when it launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. However, if the company is going to survive in the long-term, it needs to fix up Cyberpunk 2077 first.