In brief: It has been more than two years since CD Projekt Red announced it was working on a next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Fortunately, gamers won't have to wait too much longer as the update will be delivered in time for the holidays.

Earlier today, the official Twitter account for The Witcher confirmed the next-gen update would be delivered on December 14. In a separate release, CD Projekt Red said the update will feature dozens of visual, performance and technical enhancements over the original game including support for ray tracing, faster load times on consoles and mods integrated into the experience.

Gamers can also look forward to new content inspired by The Witcher series from Netflix.

The free next-gen update will be available to anyone that owns any release of the original on PlayStation 4, Xbox One or PC. For those that do not yet have the game, a next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition will drop digitally on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, with all free DLCs released to date and both major expansion packs: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. A physical release will follow the digital rollout, but CD Projekt Red did not have a launch date to share.

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The studio also mentioned an update for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch version of The Witcher 3 that will include numerous additions and improvements. Additional details on this separate update will be shared in the near future, we're told.

The next-gen update was originally due out in 2021 but got bumped to the second quarter of 2022. In April of this year, the studio behind the popular 2015 action role-playing game delayed the launch until further notice. Less than a month earlier, we learned that a new Witcher game was in development and being built with Unreal Engine 5.

CD Projekt Red will host a Twitch stream next week with more details and gameplay from the next-gen update.