The much-awaited The Witcher 3 PS5 upgrade is still planned to release this year, according to a statement near the end of CD Projekt Red’s brief for its latest financial statement. The developer has scheduled this next-gen upgrade for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series consoles for “the fourth quarter of 2022.” This release date is reiterated as well in a two-minute video posted below where the studio summarizes its financial results. This date falls in line with a statement made by CDPR on its official Twitter account in May this year that the upgrade would indeed release in Q4 2022.
The Witcher 3 PS5 version has struggled with several delays already
The next-gen upgrade was originally announced in September 2020 with an expected launch in 2021, but given the high expectations and the numerous bugs of Cyberpunk 2077, the studio decided to delay the upgrade to focus on repairing the mess. In April this year, CD Projekt Red reclaimed production of the next-gen Complete Edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from Russian studio Saber Interactive. The developer has been vocal on its support for Ukraine, choosing to stop sales of its games including The Witcher 3 in Russia and Belarus. Due to this abrupt change toward in-house development, the release date for the upgrade was precariously stated as “until further notice,” but the developer quickly amended this the next day to clarify that it hadn’t been canceled.
That we haven’t seen any gameplay footage of this effective remaster running on next-gen consoles or a high-end PC is worrying. The Q4 2022 release date is also unsettling for something that’s supposed to release within the next four months.
That said, the PS5 version of the game still plans to offer a range of technical improvements like ray tracing and faster loading times across all of The Witcher 3 content. It will be a free upgrade to those who already have the game, with PS4 owners likely able to play this upcoming PS5 version without having to spend a dime.
In other news, The Witcher 4 will be the first of multiple new Witcher games as part of another saga, and a new PS5 system update has finally added 1440p support and folders.
