Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt hits Xbox Game Pass a day before Netflix debut

Add as a preferred source on Google
CD Projekt Red

Netflix is gearing up to release its show The Witcher on December 20, but if you just can’t wait to dive into Geralt’s world and you don’t want to spend much money, you can start playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Xbox Game Pass even earlier.

Available on December 19 as part of Xbox Game Pass, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been heralded as one of the best role-playing games of all time, with an enormous scale that can easily lead to you sinking hundreds of hours into side content while barely scratching the surface of the story. Even the most trivial quests have excellent writing backing them up, with great characters that feel like real people rather than targets you need to defeat in order to progress.

Recommended Videos

You don’t need to have played the previous two Witcher games in order to enjoy The Witcher 3 on Xbox Game Pass, though the extra background you’ll get on Geralt and his associates will certainly help. Even if you aren’t usually a fan of large-scale role-playing adventures, the work CD Projekt Red put in to make the game as immaculate as it is can’t be overlooked, and because it’s part of Xbox Game Pass, you have very little to lose by trying it out.

Xbox Game Pass - X019 - Announcing New Games

It’s also a great time to try out Xbox Game Pass, too, including the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bundle that also features Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for PC. During the holiday season, you can get your first three months for $1, and the subscription will give you a month of EA Access, three months of Discord Nitro, and six months of Spotify Premium. EA Access means you’ll get even more games to play for that same price, and since you can’t even get lunch at McDonald’s for $1 anymore, we suggest diving in.

The Witcher television series stars Henry Cavill as Geralt and is based on the books — the same source material as the video game trilogy, which takes place afterward. It has already been renewed for a second season, and features many of the same characters from the video games in prominent roles.

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Monster Hunter Outlanders arrives on Android and iOS next week with four-player co-op
The free-to-play spin-off launches October 29 with open-world exploration, mobile-focused combat, and a building system.
Monster Hunter Outlanders poster

It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.

Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.

Read more
Phantom Blade Zero makes me think Sony might have a point about going all digital
Physical games still matter, but when the disc isn't a complete copy of the game, the argument for keeping it becomes harder to make.
Phantom Blade Zero Featured Image

I'm a big supporter of physical games. There's something satisfying about owning a disc, lending it to a friend, or grabbing a bargain without waiting for a digital storefront to approve the price. But Phantom Blade Zero has me questioning one of the biggest arguments in the physical-versus-digital debate. The game's digital version launches on October 29, 2026, while its physical PS5 editions, including Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate versions, won't arrive until 2027.

And there's another wrinkle: the digital version reportedly needs up to 134GB of storage, raising questions about how much of the game can actually fit on a standard Blu-ray disc. A standard PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray disc maxes out at 100GB, so Phantom Blade Zero may need to ship across multiple discs or require players to download additional data to finish installing it. Either way, the idea of popping in a disc and having the complete game ready to play gets a little murkier.

Read more
Nintendo Switch 2 jailbreak breakthrough shows what AI can do, but it’s not a one-click hack
The software-only exploit works on the latest firmware, but it's tethered and still has significant limitations.
Nintendo Switch 2

The Nintendo Switch 2 has reportedly been jailbroken, and AI helped crack the code. Developer Sammy Hajhamid, aka pepsipu, used OpenAI's Codex to help exploit the console, even modding Mario Kart World with the likes of Peter Griffin and Hatsune Miku. But before anyone celebrates an unlocked Nintendo playground, there's a catch: the exploit is tethered, not a full-blown custom firmware jailbreak.

AI helped crack the Switch 2, but it wasn't a one-click job

Read more