THQ publishing Witcher 2 on Xbox 360

By Robert Purchese Published 30 June, 2011

What happened to Namco Bandai?

THQ has been announced as the publisher of The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360.

THQ label THQ Partners will dish out the converted PC game in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

But it wasn't THQ that published The Witcher 2 on PC. That honour was Namco Bandai's, as was publishing The Witcher 1 (as Atari). So what happened there? We don't know - yet.

The press release described the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2 as "enhanced" with "numerous improvements". We already know that the brutal difficulty curve of the PC game will be smoothed for the console audience. Apparently the other bits and pieces will be revealed in good time.

The Xbox 360 can't match the PC for raw technical grunt, but CD Projekt wants to achieve visuals on console comparable to medium settings on PC.

CD Projekt has confirmed a late 2011 release for Witcher 2 on Xbox 360. Polish shops jumped the gun back in June by listing a 15th November date. Whether that date, a Tuesday, is on the money, we will have to wait and see.

Frankly, we can't wait - The Witcher 2 represents the very pinnacle of the role-playing genre. "There's simply no competitor that can touch it in terms of poise, characterisation and storytelling, or the way in which it treats you not as a player - someone to be pandered to and pleased - but as an adult, free to make your own mistakes and suffer a plot in which not everyone gets what they deserve," wrote Quintin Smith in Eurogamer's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings review.

The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • Shikasama #1 11 months ago

    The best game anyone will play on the Xbox this year unless Arkham City really pulls it out of the bag.

  • riceNpea #2 11 months ago

    THQ eh.

    i hope they give the devs enough time to fully optimse the game for console and not rush release it before it's ready and patch the hell out of it like Homefront. i don't think i'll ever buy a game from them at launch again.

    as for Witcher 2 i think it's a shame they'll make it easier. why not give us the option? as long as it's fair i'd rather it be more difficult.

  • shubhangam #3 11 months ago

    Well I hope they optimize it a bit for the PC as well, I'm sure my rig is better specs than an XBOX and I barely run it at low...

  • Ord #4 11 months ago

    It will be commercial suicide to release this so close to Skyrim. I love this game on PC, but unless this is released on either August, September or January, then this will die on the shelves. Such a shame as the game is phenomenally good.

  • Quickstick4 #5 11 months ago

    @riceNpea - its just the easy setting they are making easier for consoles. Normal, Hard etc will be the same.

    Definitely is one of the best games Ive played in a very long time. Haven't felt this engrossed in a game since Zelda: OOT.

  • YenooR #6 11 months ago

    Can't wait.

  • gjgjg #7 11 months ago

    Odd choice, thought console version would be more of an earner.

  • Smoped #8 11 months ago

    All part of THQ's well publicized plan of becoming a Big Publisher. They probably promised more money/better terms than Namco.

  • rapidowns #9 11 months ago

    Is there any ranged bow combat in Witcher? I don't like melee or magic....

  • RodHull #10 11 months ago

    Looking forward to this, had considered buffing up my PC to be able to play it properly but decided against the investment. Hopefully they'll perform miracles to make it run smoothly and pretty like Valve did with Half Life 2 on the original Xbox.

  • Paul_cz #11 11 months ago

    Maybe it would be nice to mention that all the improvements of xbox version will be released for free to all PC owners.
    Just maybe.

  • Smoped #12 11 months ago

    I would assume most of the improvements to do with the console control scheme and such, I don't think they're talking about significant changes to game content.

  • davisorle #13 11 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • rottingyoda #14 11 months ago

    @rapidowns

    Yes and no. You can make a class that relies heavily on bombs and who makes use of throwing daggers alot but you'll still need either a bit of sword and/or magic.

    Anyway just level up 'Quen' to level 3 for an easier play through.

  • Snake_2011 #15 11 months ago

    hope they found the PS3 developer they were talking about.

  • Laythe_AD #16 11 months ago

    Best RPG for donkey's years, and an abject lesson to Bioware in storytelling. Enjoy, Xboxers. Hope they found that PS3 developer also. I -want- people to play this game, sod fanboy wars.

  • freethinker101 #17 11 months ago

    I think Namco Bandai didn't want to publish Dark Souls and this at the same time. Still it will be interesting to see who wins this fight. I've pre ordered Dark Souls, but I bet Elder Scrolls sells the most units.

  • TRUTH #18 11 months ago

    The Witcher 2 is the game I'm most looking forward too on XB360. At last a proper deep adventure/rpg game that will make Fable disappear further into oblivion.

    Dark Souls, Skyrim and Metro 2033's sequel...also really looking forward too!
    Edited by TRUTH at 01/07/11 @ 07:09

  • Sevens #19 11 months ago

    Focus on QA, please.

  • lockload #20 11 months ago

    From the looks of it namco bandai is still publishing in north america?

  • geeza2020 #21 11 months ago

    I dont know how I'm going to manage three massive rpgs at the same time, what with The Witcher 2, Dark Souls and Skyrim all in the final quarter of the year, I'm not going to see the sun between the months of October and February next year!

    Pretty much like the rest of the UK then I suppose, ba-doom-tish ;-)

  • connos #22 11 months ago

    People please note that the reason the xbox is performing better compare to a same specs PC is that developers program direct-to-metal and they skip any API overhead.

    http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphic...

  • TRUTH #23 11 months ago

    geeza2020

    Don't forget Dragon Dogma, by Capcom - rpg/adventure/action. Also Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, looks very promising,