THQ publishing Witcher 2 on Xbox 360

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.