CD Projekt "aware of the issues" plaguing The Witcher 3's long-awaited update on PC
UPDATE: Studio still "investigating", provides tips on how to fix.
UPDATE 16/12/22: CD Projekt has provided an update on the technical issues seen by some players in The Witcher 3's "Next-Gen" update.
In a fresh post, the developer said it was "currently investigating" PC game crashes and low ray-tracing performance on Intel GPUs, as well as an issue where players who owned the game on Origin were unable to update it.
A separate issue with The Witcher 3's PlayStation 5 version has seen the game's expansions "unavailable in some regions".
CD Projekt has also provided a series of suggestions for how The Witcher 3 PC owners experiencing issues to try. The studio suggests ensuring your PC's drivers are up to date and that you have selected the correct version of the game (DirectX 11 or 12) that best fits your setup.
The game's DirectX 11 Version lacks support for ray-tracing and other graphical improvements.
"Players with less powerful hardware who experience performance issues might want to consider playing the game using the DirectX 11 Version," CD Projekt wrote.
As a last resort, Steam and GOG also allow you to roll back your game to an earlier version.
ORIGINAL STORY 14/12/22: The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red has released a statement acknowledging the technical issues being faced by many PC players today following the installation of the game's long-awaited "next-gen update".
Throughout the day, users have been taking to social media and to Steam's review section to make their feelings clear about the game's performance on their PC setups. Overall, the suggestion is the game is punishing on CPUs - even high-end ones - if you have ray-tracing switched on.
Some users have said they've since used Steam's roll-back functionality to remove the update entirely.
"We are aware of the issues PC players have been reporting since last night's release of the update," CD Projekt said in a statement posted to Twitter this afternoon. "We are actively investigating all of the reports and will be providing an update on particular issues as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!"
"While the team is working on fixing the issues PC players have been reporting, please make sure to have the latest Nvidia drivers installed as it may help with some of the problems you're experiencing," CD Projekt spokesperson Marcin Momot added. "Again, thanks everyone for your patience!"Users have branded the update as a "mess" and criticised its optimisation, and the game's Steam page has seen a spike in negative reviews today.
"RTX 3080 here. I went to Novigrad with ray-tracing on I was probably below 30 fps no matter the resolution," one user said. "It's unbelievable."
Others have suggested the update should have been made optional, so users had a clear choice on whether to accept its changes or not.
"I didn't want or ask for a free 'auto' download next-gen update," another person wrote. "I am still running a i7-4770 with a gtx-1660ti and 36gb of ram. The game was running great. Now it's a hot mess. I feel as if my game was stolen from me. This was not what I bought. This should have been a optional DLC download."
CD Projekt's statement suggests the studio knows it has missed the mark somewhat. It also, many onlookers have pointed out, brings back memories of the company's previous troubled launch, Cyberpunk 2077.
Digital Foundry currently has The Witcher 3's new update under the microscope for both PC and consoles - on which we've not heard of similar problems. Stay tuned for their verdict.
While you wait, Eurogamer has a compendium of The Witcher 3 coverage here for you, including that time our Bertie went and trained at the official Witcher school, and the time he tracked down the series' original writer, Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, to hear what he thought about the video games.