The Witcher 3’s next-gen upgrade arrives for free in December

The long-promised next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is really a current-gen update now, will land on Dec. 14, developer CD Projekt Red announced Monday.

The free update was originally planned for 2021, but saw delays and a change of developer from Saber Interactive, which made the Nintendo Switch version of the game, to an in-house CD Projekt team. The update will add ray tracing and other advanced graphical features in a new native version of The Witcher 3 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Windows PC players will also get a patch offering similar graphical improvements.

The new version of the game comes with both of The Witcher 3’s expansion packs, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, all previously released downloadable content, and a new DLC pack inspired by The Witcher Netflix series. There’ll be a physical edition “at a later date.”

CD Projekt Red will reveal fresh details about the update, and show new gameplay, in a Twitch stream next week. The stream has no specific date or time yet.

The update comes as CD Projekt builds out ambitious plans for the future of all things Witcher. The studio recently announced that it planned to release a trilogy of all-new Witcher games within six years of each other, as well as a remake of the first Witcher game and a multiplayer spinoff. It was also announced that the Netflix series would return for a fourth season (the third is currently in production), albeit without its Geralt, Henry Cavill.

And why is CD Projekt doing all this? Because it wants to be the next Blizzard, probably.