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The Witcher 3 gets another PC patch, but some players aren’t happy

Kris Wouk
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CD Projekt Red
Simply put, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is a big game. With any game this ambitious in size and scope, chances are fairly good that it won’t be without issues at launch. Developer CD Projekt Red has been hard at work fixing these issues, and its latest progress was posted yesterday in the form of a patch for the PC version of the game.

The patch brings The Witcher 3 to version 1.0.4, and while it doesn’t include the ability to tweak new graphics settings that some of us have been waiting for, it does fix bugs and — perhaps more importantly — make things prettier.

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Specifically, the patch improves texture rendering on the High and Ultra texture settings. Nvidia HairWorks performance is now improved as well, so if ensuring that Geralt’s white mane is flowing in the most realistic manner possible is a high priority, this patch is for you.

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Some of the fixed bugs may actually disappoint players, like the removal of a bug that caused spontaneous combustion of gas clouds. On the other hand, fixed issues related to alt + tabbing in and out of the game, overall stability improvements, and a few new gwent cards in the starting area may be worth it.

Other technical fixes including 1280 x 720 now being properly displayed as a valid resolution option, fixes to boat stuttering in cutscenes, and a resolved issue where non-Latin characters in names were preventing players from importing saves from The Witcher 2.

Unfortunately, the patch isn’t making things better for everyone. Not all players are happy with the newly enlarged loot window, and some people are experience texture-related issues and pop-in with the update, Polygon reports.

For a first-hand look at the latter issue, see the video below. For a full list of the changes the patch makes, see the patch notes on the game’s official website.

Witcher 3: NPC pop-in problem (v1.03 and v1.04)

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Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
The Witcher reveal repeats Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest mistake
A player points a gun at a cyborg in Cyberpunk 2077's reveal trailer.

On March 21, CD Projekt Red confirmed a new The Witcher game while revealing a new Unreal Engine 5 partnership with Epic Games. Shortly after that announcement, CD Projekt Red's Global PR Director Radek Grabowski had to clarify some crucial details about this new game and the Epic Games partnership in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/gamebowski/status/1506022957591797760
While this tweet clarifies the biggest misconceptions about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement, it also highlights that the developer announced this game way too early and vaguely. CD Projekt Red is already losing control of some of the discourse around the game and risks repeating one of the biggest mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077's development and marketing: Overpromising.
Cyberpunk 2077's big mistake
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2012 at a press conference. At the time, the developer promised features like a "gripping non-linear story filled with life and detail" and a variety of character classes, weapons, upgrades, implants, and more to choose from. It said the game would "set [a] new standard in the futuristic RPG genre with an exceptional gaming experience."
Cyberpunk 2077 would not release until December 2020, over eight years later. But in the meantime, CD Projekt Red continued to tease the title with trailers and interviews, highlighting the game's ambitious scope and vision. CD Projekt Red developers hyped up how the main story and sidequests intertwined, how the game would feature multiplayer, how cops would be very reactive, and more. Although the game looked and sounded very impressive prior to its release, many of these features and promises were either missing or half-baked in their implementation into Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer
For eight years, an RPG that was supposed to change the genre forever was promised, but in the end, all we got was a fairly standard open-world RPG with a bevy of technical problems at release. The massive backlash happened because people were so excited for Cyberpunk 2077, partly because CD Projekt Red hyped up all of these ambitious features over eight years.
The reality is that game development is an arduous journey that doesn't always go according to plan. Designs change, features are cut, and sometimes the finished product just doesn't come together. CD Projekt Red probably never meant to lie to its fans, but priorities and development timelines shifted and what the developer ultimately delivered with Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't up to snuff.
As CD Projekt Red made the mistake of announcing Cyberpunk 2077 too early and overpromising, I thought the studio would what to share more details on its next game until it was close to release. That was not the case. 
Initial Confirmation
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Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red is still recovering from the backlash toward Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch. Announcing a follow-up title to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now not only restores a little bit of goodwill with fans and investors but will also attract some Unreal Engine-experienced developers who might be nervous to come to CD Projekt Red following Cyberpunk 2077. 2022 has been a year of anticlimatic and purposefully vague game announcements. CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement is simply the latest one to be part of this trend, but it's also one of the most worrying because this developer has made this mistake before.  
While CD Projekt Red felt pressured to confirm this game early, they need to be very careful if they don't want to repeat the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077. The best course of action for CD Projekt Red to take now is to stay completely silent until it has a clear idea of what the finished game will entail. If that isn't the case, this could all be building to disappointment in the year 2030. 

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A new The Witcher game is in development at CD Projekt Red
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In a surprise post on the franchise's website, CD Projekt Red announced that it is currently developing a new game based on The Witcher, one that isn't a spinoff focusing on Gwent.

https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1505945110722326529

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The Witcher gets a new single-player Gwent spinoff
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Up for a round of Gwent? The card game featured in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting a new spinoff game, as revealed by IGN. Code-named Project Golden Nekker, it will be a more single-player focused spin on Gwent.

Gwent is a tactical card game where players slot troops and beasts into two rows to perform close-range and long-range attacks. It was a popular side game within The Witcher 3 -- so much so that CD Projekt Red turned it into its own free-to-play, stand-alone card game that's available on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and mobile devices.

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