‘The Witcher 3’ Devs Answer Fan Questions, Talk PC Version And Explain Free DLC

With the May 19 release date of “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” drawing ever closer, gamers are eager to learn more about the game’s performance and content. Developer CD Projekt Red held a massive Q&A session to address fans' questions.

The Q&A, posted on GamePressure, covers everything, from DLC to content, gameplay, game length and more. Speaking generally about the game, the developers said that there was no need for gamers to have played “The Witcher” or “The Witcher 2” before diving into “The Wild Hunt,” as the latter will introduce players to important story arcs. PC players will also be able to import save game data from “The Witcher 2,” and gamers on consoles can set their prior choices during a scripted scene at the game’s start.

On the technical side of things, the developer said that the engine running “The Witcher 3,” known as the Red engine, would be able to scale to support multi-threaded CPUs. They added that they’ve worked hard on reducing issues with texture pop-in occurring during cutscenes, noting that there might still be slight delays in texture loading, but these would be isolated incidents.

The team is also working on introducing mod support to the PC version of the game via the REDkit editor, with the goal of releasing it much faster than they did with “The Witcher 2.” Unfortunately, there are currently no plans to support the new DirectX 12 API in the game, as the team is currently focused on optimisations. DSOGaming reports that like “The Witcher 2,” “The Wild Hunt” will not feature an adjustable draw distance on PC due to the way the engine is set up.

Regarding gameplay, CD Projekt Red confirmed that once the story mission is complete, players will still be able to access the open world in order to keep playing, finish side quests and explore. The developer states that the main story alone requires about 50 hours of gameplay to complete. Finishing all of the game’s side missions and content will require an investment of 100-120 hours. The game also features three different epilogues and 36 conditions.

Despite the game’s immense length, CD Projekt Red has previously announced that owners of “The Witcher 3” would benefit from 16 free DLC packs. In an interview with International Business Times UK, CEO Marcin Iwiński explained why the studio decided to gift gamers so much free content.

“We wanted to send a clear message that what is currently happening with DLC is, in a lot of cases, a stretch... and that's me being polite here. We are gamers and whenever we buy a full price new release, we really expect that we will not be treated like milking cows and be charged a few bucks for every tiny thing, be it a sword, horse armour or hairstyle,” he said.

Iwiński said that the free DLC was a case of CD Projekt Red putting its money where its mouth was, and was representative of its ongoing effort to form a long-term relationship with gamers. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” will be released on PS4, Xbox One and PC on May 19.