The Witcher 3 gets a stability hotfix for the next-gen update, more improvements on the way

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt recently had its next-gen update launch. But things didn’t quite go to plan, and players reported various performance issues and glitches. It’s not a great way to kick off everyone’s 12th playthrough of the game. Fortunately, CD Projekt Red has issued a hotfix for The Witcher 3 next-gen that intends to target stability and performance, with further updates to come.

The official Twitter account for The Witcher 3 announced the hotfix earlier today. And while the tweet doesn’t go into specifics, the fix “should improve the overall stability and performance, and fix GOG & Steam overlays.” A follow up tweet also states that the next-gen update has just launched for the Origin version of the game. Don’t expect this to be the last hotfix for the next-gen update of The Witcher 3, as CD Projekt Red will further improve the experience.

The Witcher 3 stability and performance hotfix comes to the next-gen update

If you cast your mind back to 2015 during the launch of The Witcher 3, you may find this situation familiar. Back then, the PC port of the game was also released with various bugs and performance issues. These were then ironed out with time and plenty of updates. In fact, this sort of release is unfortunately exactly how Cyberpunk 2077‘s launch played out, too. It’s bound to be as annoying for the developer as it is for the players. But at the very least we do have a hotfix for The Witcher 3 now.

We’ve just released a hotfix for The Witcher 3 on PC, which should improve the overall stability and performance, and fix GOG & Steam overlays. The game version won’t change.

Our teams are working on further improving the experience on all platforms. pic.twitter.com/YHEjbfpgvG

— The Witcher (@witchergame) December 19, 2022

In fairness, The Witcher 3‘s next-gen update does bring some hefty improvements to the game. Graphically speaking, the game has had a major overhaul, with improved textures, lighting, and more detailed models. There’s also the inclusion of ray tracing, which is bound to increase the performance load to a large degree. That’s not even mentioning the gameplay improvements that sort out plenty of the game’s prior issues.

Ultimately, this was a big update for the game, so some launch issues aren’t to be unexpected. Of course, it’s annoying to deal with, but CD Projekt Red is working hard to sort these issues out. And the hotfix for The Witcher 3 hopefully irons out some stability and performance problems. In a few weeks time, we may even see most of these issues disappear.