We've known CD Projekt Red's critically-acclaimed fantasy epic, The Witcher 3, is set to arrive on Nintendo's Switch console for quite some time now. However, release date information has remained elusive. Until now, that is.
Thanks to an announcement during Gamescom 2019, we finally have a release date for The Witcher 3 on Switch: October 15, 2019. To make the game run on Nintendo's hybrid console, CD Projekt Red has stripped away many of its visual pomps and frills -- an unfortunate but necessary evil, given the Switch's low-powered hardware (comparatively speaking, anyway).
As you'll see in the announcement video above, and hands-on gameplay videos from the press, The Witcher 3 looks... less-than-ideal, to say the least. The textures are muddy, the meshes lack detail, and there appears to be minimal anti-aliasing. Further, the performance seems to be quite poor, at least by our standards. Even in the trailer, there are several noticeable (if we were to guess, sub-30) FPS drops.
With that said, The Witcher 3 is not a small game. It's an open-world RPG with tons of NPCs, monsters, and items to render at any given time. As such, it's rather impressive that the port team managed to pull this off at all. And, of course, the game will be running on a relatively small screen if played in portable mode, so perhaps some of these visual downgrades won't be as noticeable in the end.
At any rate, if you've never played The Witcher 3 before or you have but want to experience it in a new way, feel free to pre-order a Switch copy for yourself. Physical editions of the port will run you a full $60, but don't scoff just yet. In true CD Projekt Red fashion, you'll get several extra goodies for your money.
For starters, that $60 nets you the Complete Edition of the game, which includes both expansion packs: Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. The packs are ordinarily priced at $20 and $10 respectively. Additionally, physical copies of the port will include a Witcher Universe: Compendium lore booklet, a stylized paper world map, and some free stickers.
https://www.techspot.com/news/81516-witcher-3-nintendo-switch-port-arriving-october-15.html
