Developer CD Projekt Red wishes to clarify what it had said about The Witcher 3 PS5 release date on April 13. In a tweet (posted below) on the official The Witcher 3 account, the developer stated that it would have to postpone the intended Q2 release date for its next-gen versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt “until further notice” which caused many outlets to assume and report that it was being delayed indefinitely. But that apparently is not the case.
Why The Witcher 3 PS5 release date is sooner than originally thought
We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. 1/2
— The Witcher (@witchergame) April 13, 2022
Michał Nowakowski, senior vice president of business development for CD Projekt Red, in a recent investors call explained that no release date was given because the developer was still trying to figure out a production timeline, according to a transcription of the call by PCGamer:
“I’ve been looking at the headlines… and I’ve seen one that really drew my attention, which is, ‘Witcher 3 next-gen delayed indefinitely,’ which sounds like the game is in some sort of development hell. I want to state that this is not the fact.”
Nowakowski wanted to emphasize that the developer is simply bringing the production of the next-gen versions of The Witcher 3 in-house away from Saber Interactive’s Russian studio due to the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict.
“We’re evaluating our time, that requires a bit of investigation—that’s all we’re saying,” he explained. “Nobody’s saying the game is delayed [with] some monumental time gap ahead of us.”
While this suggests that the game will be arriving sooner than expected, CD Projekt Red has not given a new release window quite yet. When it’s ready, the next-gen update will arrive on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, while owners of the game on PC will receive it as a free update.
The Witcher 3 next-gen update was originally slated to release in the second half of 2021, but the release date was pushed to mid-2022 so that CD Projekt Red could focus on fixing Cyberpunk 2077.
In other news, the new Need of Speed will have anime aesthetics, and Hideo Kojima has stated that Kojima Productions will remain independent despite rumors that the studio had been acquired by Sony.
