CD Projekt Red has announced that the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have been delayed indefinitely.
The official Witcher Twitter account posted about the delay yesterday (April 13), confirming that the quarter two 2022 release date has been postponed “until further notice.”
“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,” said CD Projekt Red, adding that it is “currently evaluating the scope of work to be done.”
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
The next-gen versions of The Witcher 3 were being developed by the Russian branch of Saber Interactive, which had previously developed the Nintendo Switch port and 4K update for The Witcher 3.
CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński previously stated that Saber “already know our technology very well,” and added that the studio asked Saber to “prepare the next-gen port, and as I said during my presentation, we expect a full next-gen experience, with great next-gen features.”
It’s possible that CD Projekt Red has taken development of the next-gen versions in-house due to current sanctions on Russia, after the country began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In November of last year CD Projekt Red stated that the development of the next-gen updates of The Witcher 3 were “on track” to release in 2022. This followed news that the next-gen updates for both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 had been delayed into this year, with Cyberpunk 2077‘s update successfully launching in February.
Last month it was also confirmed that The Witcher 4 is in development at CD Projekt Red, and that the game will run on Unreal Engine 5.
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