The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt News

Netflix's highly anticipated television adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series of novels has now found its Ciri and Yennefer.

Remember when Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of The Witcher fiction, told me he'd been "stupid" rejecting a percentage of the profits while selling the video game rights to CD Projekt Red all those years ago?

The search for the star of the Netflix Witcher series is over but I can't work out if it's a bird or a plane or... That's right, it's cleft-chinned British actor Henry Cavill, who launched to fame portraying Superman recently, playing the iconic witcher Geralt.

Two small script excerpts linked to the in-development Witcher Netflix show have leaked, and have been verified as authentic.

Did you know there was a Witcher Tabletop Roleplaying Game in development, one you will play with pen and paper? It has a release date and it's not far away! The game will debut at tabletop paradise Gen Con on 2nd August, then will be sold via developer R. Talsorian Games' website and DriveThruRPG soon after.

CD Projekt Red is expanding. The main Warsaw office has ballooned and the company has opened two other studios in Poland, one in Wrocław and one in Kraków - which is where I am now.

The Witcher 3 turns three today, so what better time to remember why it's one of the games of the generation.

There's been the suggestion of multiplayer in CD Projekt Red's new game Cyberpunk 2077 for a while. In 2013, studio head Adam Badowski even told me "we're going to add multiplayer features", although he also said "it will be a story-based RPG experience with amazing single-player playthroughs". Regardless, that was five years ago, and a lot has happened since then.

It is confirmed: Geralt of Rivia, star of The Witcher series, will be a fighter in Soulcalibur 6. The castle grounds of Kaer Morhen will be his stage.

It will be the first time Geralt has appeared outside of a Witcher video game, which is something I'm sure Witcher creator Andrzej Sapkowski will be over the moon about - although if the Netflix Witcher series he's involved with takes off I'm sure he won't mind too much.

Geralt's Soulcalibur 6 cameo puts him in elite company: Yoda and Darth Vader were the iconic headline cameos in Soulcalibur 4, and Assassin's Creed's best-loved hero, Ezio, cameoed in Soulcalibur 5. His inclusion probably has a lot to do with Soulcalibur 6 being made by Witcher distributor Bandai Namco, and the company sniffing a cross-pollination opportunity, but it shows how popular The Witcher and Geralt have become nonetheless.

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UPDATE 5PM GMT: Microsoft has confirmed it. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will, alongside Crackdown, Fable Anniversary and Forza Horizon, be enhanced for Xbox One X.

CD Projekt Red has released the Xbox One X patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The patch adds two new graphical modes: Performance and 4K.

The 4K mode locks The Witcher 3 at a 4K resolution with a stable 30 frame-rate. But the performance mode unlocks the game's resolution and targets 60 frames-per-second instead. This means your game will dynamically scale from 1080p up to 4K.

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The Witcher Netflix series will reportedly be adapted by the driving force behind Marvel's Daredevil and Defenders shows.

Witcher game maker CD Projekt Red has let off a zinger on Twitter while trying to calm fears Cyberpunk 2077 will be out to take more of our money.

What would The Witcher 1 prologue tutorial - where amnesiac Geralt is hauled in from the woods by his witcher pals and taken to the iconic castle Kaer Morhen - look like remade in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? After all, Kaer Morhen and Geralt's pals all appear in The Witcher 3.

If you put your disc of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in your Xbox One X and play the game unpatched it will run at 60 frames per second.

The Witcher 3 was one of the only games to ship with an unlocked framerate. Simply what you're seeing, then, is the extra grunt of Microsoft's new console at work.

NX Gamer compared the unpatched performance of The Witcher 3 on Xbox One X against patched performance on Xbox One.

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Have you ever wondered what a Witcher musical would look like on stage at the theatre? Would Geralt sing and dance? With Roach? Would there be magic, monsters and romance?

Some recent team-leader level departures from Cyberpunk 2077 led to speculation there was trouble in paradise - and paradise began sounding worse and worse the more CD Projekt Red company reviews on employee feedback site Glassdoor I read.

CD Projekt has said it will address a crashing problem some The Witcher 3 players have suffered after downloading the recently-released PlayStation 4 Pro update.

Reports on NeoGAF and reddit complained about The Witcher 3 crashing after the 1.50 patch was installed.

This patch, which adding 4K resolution support, came out last week. Digital Foundry did its thing soon after.

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CD Projekt Red was apparently having so much fun with Geralt's skidding mechanic while making The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the team briefly turned him into a snowboarder, slapping a hat and a pair of goggles on him, a board under his feet and then shoving him down a snowy mountain.

UPDATE 5TH OCTOBER: Digital Foundry has early impressions of The Witcher 3 PS4 Pro patch, observing checkerboard rendering at 1920x2160 resolution as well as a boost to presentation at 1080p.

ORIGINAL STORY 4TH OCTOBER: The Witcher 3 PS4 Pro patch has just arrived, adding 4K resolution support and a "slight" boost to performance. It took longer than "just a few days" after all.

"Yes, the game has just received an upgrade patch, enabling it to take advantage of the additional power offered by the PS4 Pro," CD Projekt Red told me. "When playing the game on a PS4 Pro system, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and all its additional content feature support for 4K resolution and a slight boost to performance."

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A decade before CD Projekt Red's The Witcher (1) was released, there was another Witcher game was being made.

A new Polish documentary has unearthed rare footage of old and unreleased Witcher games. On show are Metropolis' canned Witcher game from 1997, as well as CD Projekt Red's fumbled first efforts at a game.

UPDATE 9PM BST: CD Projekt Red has since downplayed the "few days" proximity to me. "PS4 Pro and Xbox One X: both technical updates are coming," senior PR manager Radek Adam Grabowski told me. "More details about them, including the exact moment when they will be released, are something we are going to announce when the right time comes." Will it be "just a few days", then, or significantly longer?

As to the '100 people working on Witcher' intrigue, Grabowski clarified that the comment, as expected, referred to the number of people working on Gwent.

ORIGINAL STORY 6PM BST: CD Projekt has said a PlayStation 4 Pro update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be available in "just a few days".

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A new book has revealed the turbulent development of some of the biggest games in recent times.

Developer CD Projekt has released a lovely video to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Witcher game series.

What do you do when you have a bit of spare time on your hands - "I honestly had nothing better to do in my life" - and a fondness for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? Why, you remake one of the game's iconic cinematic trailers in MS Paint of course!

You pick a particularly grizzly Witcher 3 trailer called Killing Monsters and give it a cartoon look. Instead of people seeing Geralt intervene in a lady's roadside hanging in sumptuous CGI, they now see him slay human monsters as if doodled by a child which, well, rather alters the impact.

The redrawing comes from Kubstoff's YouTube channel, and that's their quote I used above. Kubstoff MS Paint-ified the Battlefield 1 cinematic trailer a month ago.

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What if mutant monster hunter Geralt, the eponymous witcher in The Witcher books and video games, were a samurai? What if The Witcher 4 went East?

Have you ever played Witcher 3 and thought Geralt of Rivia wasn't extreme enough? Well then, you're in luck, because a series of new mods will fix that issue.

Adult colouring books are a thing, don't tell me you hadn't noticed, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is also a thing, so what if...? Oh my good golly gosh it's happening!

There's a new mod available for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC that reworks textures and models to make the game look better.

Can't wait for the Witcher Netflix series? This 30-minute Witcher fan film, Alzur's Legacy, looks surprisingly good. Perhaps it's because it's professionally made by a recognised Polish cast and competent crew - or perhaps it's because the main character isn't Geralt.

Hey, hipster! Get those turntables out. A snazzy double soundtrack vinyl LP is coming for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

UPDATE #2 18TH May 10AM BST: Actor Doug Cockle, who voices character Geralt in the English language Witcher video games, is not attached to the Netflix series. But he would like to be. He has put out a rallying cry on Twitter for anyone who feels similar to make their voices heard.

Guess who pops up in Horizon: Zero Dawn? Oh I see, you read the headline. Yes Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher, how about that?

The muscled man who has his own Witcher calendar - he as Geralt, naturally, and naturalistically - now stars in a fanmade Witcher film. And as with the calendar, the film is rather a tip top jolly corker.

The old, obsolete CD Projekt Red forum has been hacked and users' email addresses, usernames and encrypted passwords stolen.

Data breach site Have I been Pwned? put the number of compromised accounts at 1.9m.

CD Projekt Red confirmed the news on its current forum last night.

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Happy New Year! Valve has revealed the top 100 best selling games on Steam in 2016. And given the size and dominance of Steam in the desktop gaming marketplace, the results are worth noting.

It's the 'Geralt in the bathtub' photograph that sells it for me. Our muscled hero, butt naked, legs akimbo and dangling over the tub towards us, dignity hidden by a fortunate obstruction. It's a scene every bit as subversive in this impressive Witcher cosplay calendar as in the opening moments of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. You expected naked ladies but instead you can have naked Geralt. The literal cheek.

Former notable Witcher and Gwent designer Damien Monnier has a new job - one not a million miles away from his last. He's landed at Techland, Polish developer of Dying Light, as lead designer of a new IP.

The GOG Monstrous Fall Sale has begun and runs from today until 13th November. Eye-catching discounts include The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition (which contains both expansions) for an alluring Ł20.99! Oh the benefit of CD Projekt owning GOG.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will not be patched or updated to support the 4K features of PlayStation 4 Pro.

Poland is getting a limited edition run of The Witcher stamps featuring grizzled mutant hunk Geralt of Rivia. Well jel.

All done with The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine are you? No you're not! You missed something - you all did. And no it isn't the secret Witcher 3 painting on the hill.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's impending Game of the Year Edition will include all of the game's DLC, but there's one notable caveat: your save data from the original game won't transfer over to this complete collection.

CD Projekt Red has confirmed the release date for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition as 30th August. In some territories it will be known as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition.

That Tuesday, 30th August release date appears to be worldwide and for all three platforms: PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

The Game of the Year edition includes the base Witcher 3 game as well as both expansion packs - Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine - and all downloadable content.

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The Witcher 3's virtual card game spin-off Gwent has been delayed. Originally it was slated to enter closed beta on PC and Xbox One in September, but now it's been pushed back until 25th October.

"Unfortunately, we feel we need some extra time with the game before we hand it off to you for testing," developer CD Project Red said in a statement. "We know we can make a first impression only once, and want to be sure everything is ready before we blast off.

"Delivering a good game is more important to us than keeping a deadline. Still, that doesn't mean we don't realise that delays can be disappointing, and we apologise for making you wait."

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The Witcher 3 now has a collection of fine art prints.

According to the date but perhaps not the sky it's summer - so there's a summer sale on the PlayStation Store. It's under way now and there are some eye-catching bargains.

An intrepid modder is reworking The Witcher 3 so it can be played in first-person.

UPDATE 1PM BST: CD Projekt Red has, in a statement given to Eurogamer, confirmed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition.

Microsoft's big Xbox summer sale kicks off tomorrow.

Ah when creativity inspires creativity! Behold the work of professional artist Astor Alexander, who has made characters from The Witcher series, Mario, Zelda, BioShock and Metroid look very different indeed. He's turned them into pulp book covers, noir detective images and even Renaissance-style paintings.

High up on the furthest mountain in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine there's a secret. You can't get there normally because it's out of bounds. But if you use a mod to run the game in debug mode and unlock the game's camera then you can teleport Geralt there. Then you'll see it.

Horse's tail disappearing? Body parts floating in mid-air? Marlene not talking to you? Sounds like you need The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt patch 1.22 (out now).

Note that this patch fixes the Beehive White Orchard money exploit in Witcher 3. Why don't you leave that poor dwarf alone.

There's no new content for The Witcher 3 and there won't be now - we know that - but there is a relatively long list of issues addressed.

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As expected, the rumoured Witcher 3 card game Gwent has been announced as a standalone game at E3.

This is the "new type of video game format previously unexplored by the studio" that CD Projekt Red mentioned earlier in the year.

This version of Gwent looks slicker, and has a full multiplayer and single-player mode.

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CD Projekt plans to release Gwent, the card game that's a part of The Witcher 3, as a standalone game.

There's a way of exploiting The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to earn lots and lots of money, and it involves rolling a beehive into town and then having the bees sting and kill a dwarf, obviously.

The Witcher 3 is a fantastic-looking game - but modders are making it look even better.

There's a huge new patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that introduces key new features such as level-scaling for enemies; a book that shows you how many Gwent cards you're missing and where you can find them; and an overhaul for the user interface. Cor blimey.

Patch 1.2 (2.6-2.8GB on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One depending on region; 4.5GB on GOG; 2.5GB on Steam) coincides with the release of second Witcher 3 expansion, Blood and Wine, which is out now and you should buy, as our Witcher 3: Blood and Wine review points out.

Level-scaling can be turned on and off, and does not affect experience point gain or loot received. The Gwent book is called 'The Miraculous Guide to Gwent' and is either given by the scholar during the prologue or can by bought from a merchant near St. Gregory's Bridge in the Gildorf district of Novigrad.

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There are whispers and speculation but I can tell you Cyberpunk 2077 will definitely not be at E3 this year. That comes from the horse's mouth: CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski himself.

CD Projekt Red has released a video showing off the brand new Toussaint region from upcoming Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine.

According to CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski, the company doesn't have a next Witcher game in any kind of development. Nor is one planned.

CD Projekt Red has officially announced the release date for the second, and final, Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine. It is 31st May, a day later than was rumoured yesterday.

The release date arrives as the embargo lifts on Blood and Wine coverage. I spent a few hours with the game and also talked to key figures in the development team; one person told me Blood and Wine was "a graphical upgrade from the base game", and another confirmed there would be no new content released for Witcher 3 after the expansion arrives. There will, however, be patches.

Blood and Wine is available individually for Ł15.99 or can be bundled with the game's first expansion, Hearts of Stone, for Ł20.

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A year ago I sat in a room with a downcast Adam Badowski, studio head of CD Projekt Red, and we talked about The Witcher 3 'graphics downgrade'. He wanted his game to visually knock people's socks off but instead it faced criticism.

The second, bigger Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine may be released 30th May.

That's according to an apparent Steam listing for the game that jumped the gun yesterday and has since been taken down. A screenshot was captured on Twitter (via IGN) and looks authentic.

Among the expansion details on Steam was word that players will own a vineyard in the new content, be able to dye their armour, and collect a new Skellige-themed deck for card game Gwent. There's also mention of a grand tourney to take part in.

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There won't be any new content released for The Witcher 3 after second expansion Blood and Wine, game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has told me.

Here's an easy story to digest: pictures. Specifically, a clutch of new screenshots for upcoming Witcher 3 expansion Blood & Wine.

It's been a brilliant financial year for CD Projekt, crowned by the release of The Witcher 3, a critical and commercial success that has propelled the Polish company to sales and revenue an order of magnitude higher than anything it's enjoyed before.

This year's BAFTA Game Awards include a whopping 10 nominations for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.

The first screenshots of second Witcher 3 expansion, Blood and Wine, have been released. They show a grand city and the palace of Beauclair basking in the sun, as well as a vineyard in the new Toussaint region, which is famed for its wine.

GOG.com has launched its annual winter sale, which is set to feature new discounts each day until 13th December.

GOG now offers the first significant Witcher 3 discount I'm aware of, slicing 50 per cent off the price, bringing the game to Ł25. The offer kicks off a Black Friday-inspired, five-day discount binge known as the 'Only on GOG.com' sale.

Green Man Gaming, following a spat with popular subreddit Game Deals, has made a change and will now tell buyers where game keys come from.

A Witcher movie, which is nothing to do with Polish game maker CD Projekt Red, now has a global release date of 2017. It will both introduce the world of the Witcher and serve as the beginning of a series to continue in film and on TV.

Patch 1.11 for The Witcher 3 finally appears to fix the long-running issue some people have been having with the Skellige's Most Wanted quest.

"Fixes issue occasionally preventing players from completing quest titled Skellige's Most Wanted," say the notes, and there are a couple of other related tweaks to the quest too.

Community manager Marcin Momot shared the notes on Twitter moments ago. As to the patch's availability he said, "PC should be out in just a few hours and consoles will be following shortly as well." There's no word on file size.

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Remember that Witcher 3 money exploit in starting area White Orchard where you could kill cows for their hides, meditate for a couple of hours, and then do it all again? It was patched and fixed brilliantly with a grotesque cow boss who shows up if you try it on, but that's not the point. Point is, if you did it, or any money exploit like it, you may be in for a fine - an in-game fine.

UPDATE 4PM BST: The patch is 15GB on console and between six-15GB on PC, community manager Marcin Momot has revealed. The Hearts of Stone expansion will be a separate download (comes out 13th October). But according to Momot, speaking in an email, the HOS download will be "considerably smaller".

ORIGINAL STORY 1.45PM BST: Witcher 3 patch 1.10 has been detailed and the notes stretch on for pages - there are more than 600 changes! "The update itself is right around the corner and should be here in a matter of days," community manager Marcin Momot said on the game's forum - and that's on all platforms.

Among the many points is word an Xbox One memory management issue has been fixed, as have the mini-freezes on the console when looting. There is no specific mention anywhere of PlayStation 4, but there are many more quest-specific performance issues fixed besides.

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CD Projekt Red has issued a formal statement to Eurogamer this morning in response to an unfounded rumour that spread yesterday.

The Witcher 3 expansion Hearts of Stone will be released 13th October, CD Projekt Red has announced. This is the first of two planned expansions; the second, Blood & Wine, arrives Q1 2016.

Hearts of Stone will introduce a new gameplay mechanic called Runewords that "significantly" affect gameplay, says the press release. "Each Runeword will impact a different aspect of in-game mechanics and will allow the players to experiment with various strategies and tactics." It also has new monsters, new characters and a new romance.

Hearts of Stone can be accessed any time throughout The Witcher 3 campaign but is designed for Geralt characters level 30 or higher. It takes place in the wilds of No Man's Land, near Novigrad and Oxenfurt, and involves a contract to kill a bandit captain who possesses the power of immortality. No pressure. Your path through the expansion is up to you. You can recruit break-in artists and party with a ghost, apparently. Judging by the below trailer, Geralt is also a prisoner for at least some of it.

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CD Projekt has announced that The Witcher 3 sold 6m copies in six weeks.

As of the financial period ending 30th June the exact count was 6,014,576 copies sold. We're nearly two months on now, so presumably it's significantly higher.

The company revealed the numbers in a financial presentation and summary of a board report.

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UPDATE 17/08/2015: Witcher 3 players have criticised CD Projekt for failing to release a REDKit mod tool.

The Witcher is getting a pen-and-paper role-playing game spin-off, developer CD Projekt Red has announced.

UPDATE 28/07/2015: CD Projekt has revealed how The Witcher 3's upcoming new game plus mode works.

The two planned Witcher 3 expansions will, combined, "be like the length of The Witcher 2", game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told me when I visited the studio in May.

"Those expansions will be big," he said. "If you summarise these two expansions, probably the length of the two expansions will be like the length of The Witcher 2. Those are really big, with different locations, different characters, different stories, different items, cut-scenes, everything."

The first expansion, Heart of Stone, arrives October. It's around 10 hours in length. The second expansion, Blood & Wine, arrives first-quarter 2016, and is around 20 hours in length. "But from my experience," Tomaszkiewicz added, "it always grows. It's like in The Witcher 3: we plan the main story for 50 hours and the side activities for 50 hours. It should be 100 hours. And it's not. It's hard to plan actually because you're adding stuff - adding, adding, adding to fill the world."

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The Witcher 3 has sold 4m copies in two weeks, maker CD Projekt Red has announced.

In an open letter, CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski wrote: "4 million RPG fans spending their hard-earned money on our game is a sign that we did something right, and you can be sure that we'll harness all that positive energy and make the upcoming expansions worthy of the grand adventure that you're telling us Wild Hunt already is!

"Until then, keep on enjoying Wild Hunt, do not forget to grab your weekly set of free DLCs, and stay tuned for constant updates and enhancement to the game we are continuously working on."

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UPDATE 04/09/2015 5pm: The error regarding digital copies of The Witcher 3 on Xbox One has been fixed.

UPDATE 9TH JUNE: There's been a bumper update to the Sale, the headline addition being Telltale's excellent adventure games. The entire Walking Dead series - Season 1, Season 2, 400 Days - is only Ł10.67, and The Wolf Among Us is down to Ł4.79. The new Game of Thrones series is half-price at Ł11.49.

UPDATE 17/08/2015: The New Game Plus mode for Witcher 3 is rolling out now.

UPDATE 10TH JULY: Below are the fuller patch notes, as released on the game's forum (spotted by PCGamer).

The optional new movement style for Geralt apparently toggles between two types of responsiveness. Community manager Marcin Momot wrote on the forum that, "Some players have been reporting that Geralt's responsiveness was not up to their preferences so we are introducing a toggle to switch between two types of responsiveness. Once you play it, you'll be able to choose the one that fits you better." Hmm, curious.

Introduces an alternative movement style for Geralt. To enable, go to the Gameplay\Movement Response submenu.

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Splatoon is the Wii U's fastest-selling new franchise to date in the UK, overtaking undead Ubisoft launch title ZombiU.

If you go down to Witcher 3's churchyard today, you're in for a spooky surprise.

The next Xbox One patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will target the game's frame-rate, developer CD Projekt Red has said.

A 30fps cap will be introduced via the patch, although it is unknown as yet if this will be optional.

Writing on Twitter, community coordinator Marcin Momot explained that the lock "should" be there in patch 1.03.

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Open-world role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has scored the biggest UK release of the year so far, smashing Battlefield Hardline's week one sell through by an impressive 53 per cent.

Launch week sales were up 608 per cent on its predecessor The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, which came out in 2011, although only for PC and then later on Xbox 360.

63 per cent of physical copies were sold on PlayStation 4, 32 per cent on Xbox One and five per cent on PC. Of course, the lion's share of PC sales will be digital (Chart-Track's data does not include download sales).

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CD Projekt has released a patch for the PC version of The Witcher 3. It brings the open world role-playing game up to version 1.03.

The update focuses on improvement performance in cut-scenes and gameplay, as well as when Nvidia Hairworks is running, which some players have reported causes issues. Nvidia Hairworks lets users simulate and render fur and hair, adding thousands of dynamic hairs to characters and creatures.

Elsewhere, the patch adds additional graphics settings.

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The Witcher games are synonymous with lavish CGI trailers and the newly released A Night to Remember Witcher 3 video tops the lot.

What it does better than any Witcher video before is give an idea of what you'll be playing, not lose itself in glitz and glamour and have no real bearing on the actual game.

You track down an enemy because you've been paid to, you drink a potion in preparation, and your medallion rumbles as danger is near.

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Sony and Microsoft are both using next week's launch of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to stage their own battle for UK console supremacy.

The people behind upcoming open-world role-playing game The Witcher 3 have a trick up their sleeve when it comes to the resolution of the Xbox One version.

The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red has spent the weekend taking down leaked gameplay footage from early copies of the role-playing game threequel.

This new Witcher 3 trailer - any one sense a launch coming up? - may as well be titled "The One That Reminds You How Gory The Game Is".

Oh do the heads roll. Takes a little while to get going, but then - schnk! - limbs, heads and even torsos start coming apart like Ikea joinery.

It's not just splatter-gore - there's a good look at some of the game's monsters, and even a bit of playable character Ciri in ferocious action at the end.

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UPDATE 07/05/2015 8pm: Green Man Gaming has ended its Witcher 3 pre-order promotion, though it noted that it will "reinvigorate the offer in the run up to launch".

UPDATE 06/05/2015: Yesterday's live Witcher 3 gameplay session focused on combat and how different character builds approach it. It gave a real, in-depth look at the game's different sets of perks and how you can customise your Geralt hero to suit your style.

The game's difficulty was also demonstrated, the same monster encounter being played on the game's most difficult setting and then the game's easiest setting. Incidentally, I played the game on a normal difficulty setting earlier this year and it was challenging.

The Witcher 3 doesn't use the 'easy, medium, hard' naming convention, by the way, but opts for "Just the Story, Story and Sword, Blood and Broken Bones, and Death March" instead. Death March makes enemies tougher and hit harder, and it also stops you regenerating health while meditating, and scales down stat bonuses, meaning every slight edge you can get will count.

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GOG Galaxy, the client that's a little bit like Steam, has entered open beta for all to try.

This is the optional, carefully-does-it next step for the download games store, bringing the community and their game collections together.

GOG Galaxy introduces multiplayer and matchmaking, social features like friends lists, plus stat tracking, achievements and all that stuff. There's cross-play with Steam as well, so you're not in an 'either or' situation.

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Nvidia is bundling The Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham Knight with its GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards.

Microsoft has apologised for including PC gameplay footage of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in a Xbox One trailer.

Fans spotted the slip-up after watching the footage running at 1080p/60fps.

The Xbox One version of The Witcher 3 only outputs at 900p/30fps (the PlayStation 4 version outputs at 1080p/30fps).

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has revealed nearly nine minutes of new footage from its upcoming medieval action-RPG series.

Charles Dance, best known recently for his fabulous turn as Lannister patriarch Tywin in Game of Thrones, will star in The Witcher 3 (due out in under a month).

A new Xbox One bundle has been revealed, this time paired with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

It's out next month, The Witcher 3, and this is as close to a launch trailer as we may get.

It's got everything - a tapestry of shots teasing every aspect of the game, and with a slightly patronising narrator. But hey, not everyone follows the game as closely as we do.

It also has a brilliantly foul-mouthed dwarf who invites you pleasantly for a drink then calls you "c**ksucker" by way of address. There's a vampire with a potty-mouth too.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has revealed two major expansions to its upcoming fantasy RPG.

Entitled Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine, these two add-ons should take players in the neighborhood of 30 hours to complete.

Hearts of Stone is pegged to be the shorter of the two expansions with a roughly 10-hour playtime. Set in the wilds of No Man's Land and Oxenfurt, series stalwart Geralt of Rivia will get roped into a contract with a mysterious figure called the Man of Glass. We suspect it won't be a crossover with Samuel L Jackson's character from Unbreakable.

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Want to see how The Witcher 3's opening quarter hour begins? Well you're in luck, as that's a thing that exists today on the internet. And on this very page, too!

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt could take completionists over 200 hours to wrap up, according to senior game designer Damien Monnier.

German magazine Gamestar recently published an article about upcoming fantasy role-playing game Witcher 3, and it revealed a raft of new information.

CD Projekt revealed an all-new, extended look at The Witcher 3 in action as they presented a panel at this year's PAX East.

New Witcher 3 gameplay footage was shown at GDC, demonstrating, it seems, on Nvidia's streaming tech, Grid.

Charismatic CD Projekt Red gameplay designer Damien Monnier can be heard narrating the demo, which shows Geralt in a forested area as the sun rises.

The appealing scene gets an applause before Monnier announces, "It's not even on the highest setting. We're saving this for when you buy the game - we want you to get a bit of a slap across the face." The rascal.

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CD Projekt Red has revealed the PC system requirements for The Witcher 3, due for release 19th May.

Yesterday's announcement of a further delay to The Witcher 3 - to 19th May 2015 - cited "many details that need to be corrected" and rued how "we set the release date too hastily". It came from the Board of CD Projekt.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has announced a further delay to the game, and a new release date of 19th May 2015.

UPDATE 15/12/2014 8.51pm: The Witcher 3's second playable character has been revealed to be Ciri, a silver-haired woman described as "a powerful, living weapon capable of both healing and destroying the world she inhabits".

For one man, The Witcher 2 went beyond being simply an enjoyable experience. For Nick, it was therapeutic.

Everyone who buys The Witcher 3 will receive all 16 planned pieces of downloadable content (DLC) for free, developer CD Projekt Red has announced.

That's buying any edition from any shop on any platform and at any point in time. No small print: buy the game and that's it.

In an open letter, CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński lambasted the current state of affairs, where DLC acts either as carrot dangling in front of certain shops, or as supplementary revenue-booster at launch.

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Well, I've never seen a crow do that.

Finishing everything - literally completing - Dragon Age: Inquisition will take between 150 to 200 hours, BioWare reckons. The main story, however, will take 20 to 40.

Two important questions for a Friday: is Geralt too handsome in The Witcher 3 - a genuine concern - and what more can we do while sailing in the game?

Gamer Network, which also publishes this website, has announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is being demoed live next month at EGX.

Digital distributor GOG.com is trying to convince Hollywood to let it sell TV shows and movies DRM-free.

Developer CD Projekt has released a 35 minute gameplay video of open world role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The video, below, picks up the action after the griffin hunt sequence shown during Microsoft's E3 press conference in June. It is the same gameplay shown to press behind closed doors at E3 and again at Gamescom last week. There's developer commentary, too.

We see series star Geralt, on horseback, visit the city of Novigrad. The player would be several hours into the game. We won't spoil what happens.

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UPDATE: CD Projekt has issued Eurogamer a statement on the reaction to its announcement of Xbox One-exclusive physical items for the Collector's Edition of fantasy role-playing game The Witcher 3.

The video game version of The Witcher Adventure Game (board game) has entered closed beta and invites have been sent out.

Those invites are few and are reserved for people who pre-ordered the The Witcher 3 role-playing game from CD Projekt's shop GOG. Those who pre-ordered the game earliest will be invited in, and invites will be sent in small batches over the weekend, CDPR told me. More will be sent out on Monday.

Also involved in the testing phase will be GOG Galaxy, the new GOG client that connects gamers to each other and handles various multiplayer and social elements. It's a bit like Steam.

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When CD Projekt executive producer John Mamais told Eurogamer at E3 that The Witcher 3 would feature more realistic fur when played on PC with ultra settings enabled, he wasn't kidding.

Dozens of internal design documents for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have been posted online, revealing key details about the game's story, missions, enemies and ending.

The files were reportedly stolen from a CD Projekt Red employee whose Google Drive was hacked into, then posted to 4chan and Reddit.

CD Projekt Red has confirmed the leak to Eurogamer and advised fans against accessing the files due to their spoiler-ridden content.

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Some who caught The Witcher 3's gameplay demo during Microsoft's E3 press conference were a bit worried by what they saw.

During the five minute demo, set about 10 hours into the game, series star Geralt is off on a griffin hunt in the No Man's Land wilderness. He prepares for combat, in classic Witcher fashion, by equipping a set of buffing potions and a small crossbow.

It's not long before Geralt comes up against a number of bandits, and easily dispatches them with a combination of magic attacks and devastating sword strikes. Geralt eventually tracks the griffin down, and takes just a few attacks to kill his quarry.

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CD Projekt Red took to the Microsoft E3 stage to show brand new gameplay of The Witcher 3.

It showed Geralt using his monster hunting abilities to track and eventually kill a griffin.

You'll note, as he traverses the forest terrain, how he can jump freely and leap onto ledges!

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Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is due on 24th February for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, CD Projekt Red has announced at its summer press conference.

Studio co-founder Markin Iwinski noted that all standard editions come with a game map, a Witcher Universe Compendium, the soundtrack, stickers and a game manual.

The limited pre-order-only Collector's Edition also comes with a figurine of Geralt slaying a griffin, a 200-page art book, steel case, and a steel wolf medallion.

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UPDATE 14:05 BST: The Witcher 3 standard edition includes a raft of extras.

Last year Microsoft featured The Witcher 3 on the biggest gaming stage: a platform-holder E3 conference at a time when both big new consoles were unreleased. There couldn't have been a clearer statement that this game was a big deal.

E3 2014 is nearly upon us now, and there's talk that CD Projekt Red - and The Witcher 3 - will be on stage again. "Hopefully," said company co-founder Marcin Iwinski, talking to me in Poland recently.

But whose stage, and why?

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Polish developer CD Projekt Red has promised "no more delays" for massive role-playing game The Witcher 3.

At Polish conference Digital Dragons last week I broached, with CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski, the delicate matter of whether The Witcher 3 will run better on PS4 than on Xbox One.

UPDATE 1PM GMT: CD Projekt Red has responded.

The mobile game has been in development for a year by a standalone team, I was told, and an official announcement is going to happen "very soon". It will coincide with the launch of a beta test.

"Smartphones and tablets are truly powerful platforms these days and are finally giving us the ability to develop mobile games we would like to play ourselves; games that are taking full advantage of newest smartphone and tablet technologies, and offer the quality level that we, as a studio, are always aiming to achieve," co-founder Adam Kiciński added.

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GOG has ditched its controversial regional pricing plan and apologised to its users.

CD Projekt has delayed PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One fantasy role-playing game The Witcher 3 to February 2015. It had been due out later this year.

Two key members of The Witcher 3 team officially departed CD Projekt Red last week: lead gameplay designer Maciej Szcześnik and gameplay producer Marek Ziemak.

CD Projekt Red has unleashed three scrumptious new screenshots of The Witcher 3.

Popular fantasy series The Witcher is getting its very own board game later this year.

UPDATE: CD Projekt Red has released the stunning The Witcher 3 trailer unveiled at VGX, this time in glorious full high definition.

The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red has made it abundantly clear there will be no DRM associated with The Witcher 3 on PC, if bought in a box or from game-download shop GOG.com (Steam is its own kind of DRM, and The Witcher 3 will definitely be on Steam).

Polish studio CD Projekt Red has announced 6 million combined The Witcher sales on this, the series' sixth birthday.

In that relatively short period of time Red has gone from being a nobody into an internationally renowned somebody, crafting a next-generation RPG prestigious enough for Microsoft to feature during its important E3 Xbox One presentation this year.

To mark the occasion I travelled to Poland to see the studio with my own eyes and meet the people responsible for it. That story, CD Projekt's story, will be told in an article coming soon.

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The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt RED is cooking up a surprise with famed comic book company Dark Horse. What is it? We'll have to wait for Friday, apparently, when the developer plans to "unveil something truly special for fans of the fantasy genre" at the New York Comic Con.

Polish studio CD Projekt Red has everything going for it as it builds to a Witcher 3 crescendo in 2014. But there are concerns - concerns about it being open world and perhaps flabbier and more unfocused as a result.

Veteran actor Charles Dance - best known as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones - will be joining the cast of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, developer CDProjekt Red has announced.

CD Projekt Red has produced a brutal new cinematic for The Witcher 3 to highlight the morally ambiguous tone of the game, and series.

Witcher developer CD Projekt Red will open a new studio in Poland in the historic city of Kraków next month, where it will make one of two new smaller games approximately 20-hours in length.

Bearded beauty Geralt and his serrated bread-knife sword have appeared in a batch of new Witcher 3 screenshots, fresh out of E3 (via AllGamesBeta).

More good news: Xbox One won't be supported, among other places, in Poland and Portugal when the console launches this November.

Worse, it looks like you won't be able to import an Xbox One if you live there because you won't be able to activate games with an Xbox Live account registered in an unsupported region.

The list of 21 countries Xbox One supports at launch - part of a disclaimer article - prompted concerned Xbox One fans living in the omitted countries to question Xbox Support on Twitter. NeoGAF compiled the reports.

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Update: Temperatures are running hot and CD Projekt Red clearly isn't pleased with the guilty-by-association connotations of The Witcher 3 being on current public enemy number Xbox One. But what can it do? CDP co-founder and Joint CEO Marcin Iwiński has attempted to explain the company's position again.

CD Projekt Red has confirmed The Witcher 3 for Xbox One on stage at Microsoft's E3 conference today. It's also a PC and PS4 game.

The Xbox One version will have optional Kinect voice commands for quick-switching during combat and casting spells.

The UI will also be ported for SmartGlass purposes such as inventory and character management.

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CD Projekt Red has decided against having multiplayer in The Witcher 3, explaining to me that it has "no place" in a "strongly story-driven game".

There will be no quick-time events (QTEs) in The Witcher 3!

CD Projekt Red has confirmed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PlayStation 4 in 2014.

The Polish developer said the open world role-playing game will launch simultaneously on all high end consoles, guaranteeing release on the next Xbox.

"We were thrilled when asked, several months ago, to be one of the developers who were granted early access to the PlayStation 4," said studio boss Adam Badowski.

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Can you name five Skyrim characters from memory?

UPDATE: On closer inspection the quote below comes from the CDProjektRED_EN Twitter account, a translation account for the official CDProjektRED_IR Twitter feed. We've checked with CDProjekt and the company does not own this, meaning the remarks below do not come from an official source.

Update: This is a bit more believable. Turns out that when CDPR studio head Adam Badowski said The Witcher 3 would be the last Witcher game, what he really meant was it would be the last game of this trilogy.

CD Projekt Red has finally formally announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

It's due 2014 on PC and "all high-end platforms available", according to GameInformer. We've known for a long time that The Witcher 3 will be a next-gen game. The only question is, will it be on both the next Xbox and PlayStation 4?

The biggest change in design for The Witcher 3 is its shift to being open world like an Elder Scrolls game. Where you go and when you go is up to you. There won't be chapters or acts, and hero Geralt will apparently answer only to himself.

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CD Projekt Red wrote a secret message about an impending Witcher 3 announcement in a brand new and very sexy Cyberpunk 2077 CGI video.