CD Projekt Red has delayed the much-anticipated next-gen upgrades for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Cyberpunk 2077’s upgade is now targeting a release date within Q1 2022 (January-March), with The Witcher 3 to follow suit in Q2 (April-June).
Announced in an investor update, CD Projekt wrote: “The Management Board of the Company hereby announces that, based on recommendations supplied by persons supervising development, it has decided to allocate additional time to both projects. The Company currently intends to release the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 in the first quarter of 2022, and the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the second quarter of 2022.”
A subsequent tweeted version of the update doesn’t offer a specific reasoning for the delay, but says, “we want to make it right.”
IMPORTANT PRODUCTION UPDATE pic.twitter.com/KOnaIVOt4v
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) October 20, 2021
Both games were due to see their upgrade released in the second half of 2021, with The Witcher’s upgrade to come with extra, free content inspired by Netflix’s live-action take on the series. Both upgrades will be free to last-gen owners of the games, and should improve graphical fidelity and performance.
The delay follows a statement in September that saw CD Projekt refuse to offer concrete release dates for either upgrade, and not ruling out a push into next year. That caution is a response to Cyberpunk’s disastrous launch, leading it to promise to be more careful about its pre-release marketing in future.
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