How did they do that? It’s becoming an increasingly common question with the top-end ports arriving on Switch, with developers delivering excellent work in bridging the immense power gap between PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo hybrid. But some might say that no Switch port is as ambitious as The Witcher 3: Complete Edition, created by CD Projekt RED with the port carried out by Saber Interactive. It’s a vast game with upwards of 100 hours of gameplay, set within a massive open world – with no cuts to content.
We’ve already posted our impressions of the game running in Switch’s handheld mode and taken a closer look at some docked direct feed capture and we’re impressed. Yes, of course, there are compromises and cutbacks – just as there are on all of Switch’s ‘miracle’ console ports – but it The Witcher 3. In fact, it’s an all-new take on the game, transitioning across to mobile hardware for the first time.
During a press event for the game held a couple of weeks ago at Nintendo’s UK headquarters, we had the chance to go hands-on with the game and to spend some time talking about the title with CDPR senior producer Piotr Chrzanowski. In this detailed interview, we talk about the origins of the conversion effort, how the existing game and all of its expansions were crammed onto a 32GB cartridge and how the assets and content transitioned across to Switch.
Suffice to say that based on what we’ve seen and played, we’re really looking forward to giving this one the complete Digital Foundry treatment. Look out for that closer to the game’s release.
Digital Foundry: The Witcher 3 on Switch: what were your thoughts and expectations, going in?
Piotr Chrzanowski: When it comes to expectations we wanted to really bring the same experience. We wanted to make sure this is the same game that you’ll see on PS4, you’ll see on Xbox [One], that you’ll see on PC. So our goal was to bring the same game: not to cut anything, not to change things unless you really have to. This is what we looked at.