The Witcher 3 coming to the Switch has to be one of the most surprising announcements so far, owing simply to the fact that the Switch can even run the game is something not many of us would have thought was possible. Sure, the game is having to make some concessions to make sure that that can happen, so it won’t exactly be the exact same experience as what you might find on a PS4 or an Xbox One – or better yet, a solid PC – but for those worrying that the Switch version of the game is going to be a crippled and incomplete experience- well, don’t be.
Speaking with VGC in an interview, CD Projekt RED’s UI coordinator Alvin Liu got to speaking about the upcoming Switch release, and how happy the Polish studio is with it. As per Liu, though they have had to make some tradeoffs to make sure that the game can run on the Switch – such as raw distances, or lower foliage, as Liu mentions – it’s still going to be the full Witcher 3 experience, in that CDPR aren’t cutting anything out. Liu also specifically mentioned the changes CDPR had to make to the game’s UI, which the developer has mentioned in the past has been their biggest challenge in porting the game.
“We’re really happy with how Witcher 3 is playing on Switch,” said Liu. “It’s still at a quality that we’re proud of, but we also understand that there were hardware trade-offs that we had to do, in terms of performance versus graphics. Right now there’s a bit less foliage and some of the draw distances are lower… but it still looks amazing. I was very impressed. Unless you pointed a lot of changes out to me I probably wouldn’t have noticed them.”
“You’ll get the full Witcher 3 and all expansions,” Liu continued. “We’re not really cutting anything. The biggest changes that we made involve the user interface and how you interact is a bit different on the Switch compared to other versions. I think if this is your first experience with The Witcher 3, then you’re going to be really thrilled and enjoy it. Our company is pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
The Witcher 3 is due out on the Nintendo Switch some time this year, though an exact release date hasn’t yet been announced- that said, a recent leak may have pegged it for a September launch. Either way, whenever it does launch, it’s going to be an absolutely massive file– by Switch standards, at the very least.
