‘Witcher 3', 'Cyberpunk 2077' Next-Gen Updates Might Be Delayed

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 01 September 2021, 07:09 pm

"Witcher 3" and "Cyberpunk 2077" next-gen upgrades for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S might be delayed until much later this year, according to CD Projekt Red.

(Photo : CD Projekt Red )

WCCFTech reports that during a webcast, company SVP of business development Michal Nowakowski stated that they can't guarantee the next-gen updates for "Witcher 3" and "Cyberpunk 2077" will be released during their initial predicted windows.

CD Projekt's main target was to release the upgrade for "Cyberpunk" late this year. Due to that game's horribly disastrous launch, the dev team seems to be taking as much time as they need to develop the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version.

"Cyberpunk 2077" on the PS4 and Xbox One runs infamously horrible, with the last-gen version seemingly being plagued by gameplay, performance, and graphical issues the most. An upgrade to next-gen could ensure that the game will run far better, reports The Verge.

As for "The Witcher 3," their approach is a little bit different, according to Nowakowski. Saber Interactive is the one who's working on most of the aspects of the game's next-gen upgrade and not the internal team at CDPR.

It's worth noting that Saber has already been responsible for another "Witcher 3" port: the Nintendo Switch one, which was launched in 2019. Back then, this endeavor put Saber Interactive on the map as a specialist in porting games across vastly different platforms. This could mean that the "Witcher 3" next-gen upgrade is in good hands.

One might attribute the delay of these ports to the massive data breach that CD Projekt Red suffered early this year. During the attack, source codes for both "Witcher 3" and "Cyberpunk 2077" were stolen and allegedly auctioned on the dark web for millions. Perhaps due to the attack, devs at CDPR had to rework most of the ports' assets from the ground up, potentially causing this delay.

'Witcher 3' On Next-Gen: Is There Going To Be Another 'Witcher' Renaissance?

Perhaps there could be since the award-winning RPG from 2015 has gained a lot of new fans from external sources.

(Photo : Steam )

Among those sources is obviously, the live-action "Witcher" series on Netflix, which stars Henry Cavill. A next-gen upgrade to "Witcher 3" would seem to be another perfect reason for players to rediscover the game after Netflix has announced the show's second season will release on Dec. 17.

This won't even be the first time that the Netflix series directly affected the player base of a now six-year-old game. When season 1 of the show premiered two years ago, it single-handedly increased "Witcher 3" player counts to record-highs almost overnight, according to Hypebeast. There's no reason not to believe that this will happen again since the first-ever Witcher Con back in July, it was announced that free DLC inspired by the Netflix series will be added to the next-gen version of "Witcher 3."

What About 'Cyberpunk 2077?'

CD Projekt Red made it clear that they're not giving up on "Cyberpunk 2077," despite its very poor reputation among gamers. A good number of these people are looking forward to the next-gen upgrade as a "re-release" of sorts for the troubled title.

(Photo : Steam )

The game just received its last big patch, Patch 1.3, last August 16. It's still unclear whether the next-gen version of "Cyberpunk" will carry over the changes made from previous patches, but it's highly likely it will.

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Written by RJ Pierce