Out Today: The Witcher 3's Free PS5 Upgrade Is Available Now

Downloaded it last night. Forgot I didn’t own the DLC on PS4, only on PC so that’s a bit annoying.

@get2sammyb I did see that but they’ve bumped up the price by quite a margin, the GOTY edition was going for about £6 a couple months back rather than £20 total for both expansions.

I'm here in Canada and unfortunately, the PS5 version doesn't show up as a free upgrade to my PS4 disc version. Anybody else having the same problem?

Is there a day one patch for all the bugs and glitches I've seen reported?! 😂

Downloaded midnight. Now it's only a matter of the working day passes to start a new journey through The Continent. I will start a fresh save.

The goty complete edition was 6.99 or £7.99 last year when I grabbed mine but now it seems to have gone up in price on the sales. Downloading next gen upgrade now. 50GB not bad thought it be more than that considering the two expansions with it, unless those expansions are separate downloads I dunno

Looking forward to replaying this. It'll probably take me a year to get through everything including the side quests and DLCs with the little time I have to play.

After i finish Soul Hackers 2 i will start my playthrough of one of my favorite games of all time. I can't wait to see how it plays and looks after the update.

@Uncharted2007 It takes a long time... The 2 expansions are huge, the size of some games. I will play slowly, take my time, as there are many other games coming. But it's a sure great time, TW3 is so good in everything...

@evildave333 it is, downloading mine now as we speak

Yeah I'm gonna be honest here, I'm surprised now that not a single outlet Mentioned any bugs that came with this new update. I played it for about 2 hrs last night and experienced the following in that amount of time:

-Sound and music cutting out often
-3 or 4 crashes back to PS5 home screen (the game feels unstable at times and it can start to hitch prior to these crashes.
-Numerous framerate drops in both modes
-In RT mode specifically the lighting can flicker, assets and shading can pop in an out of intended state right in front of you.

-Old save not showing up, until a reddit forum explained how to do the cross platform cloud upload (you have to download the ps4 version again, load a save, then enable cross saves by hitting l2 on load/save screen then save in a loaded save game to get that one save to then be uploaded to the cloud and visible once you download the Ps5 version. Then you have to click on claim my rewards to force the game into recognizing your gog account by logining in on their website again.)

All of that aside it's nice to jumpp back in. It's a tough sell as to which mode is better, as they both have their visual shortcomings. However the quality of life HUD options. Camera angle changes, and quick casting are welcome improvements for sure.

I have to wonder though, will it take them over 2 years to Patch all the bugs created with this update😳

@evildave333 I downloaded it at literally 00:01 this morning.

@nessisonett yah that's quite a bummer man. This game has been at a sub 15 dollar price for years (most Often 9.99 US). To see them raise the price to that high is just a bit scummy.

Ironic this 'free' upgrade is now much more expensive if you don't own the game yet. Ridiculous how they bumped up the price of the base game now.

@JohnnyShoulder this broken update is the day one patch apparently.

Installed last night, will fire it up later today.

I DO wish Sony would stop putting the TOTAL GB for all versions under the same store banner. You only see the separate file sizes once you purchase. Deleted a few things I didn't need to because it said 120GB minimum, instead of the 85GB it actually is.

@ceedj 85GB but mine is only 50GB as I'm downloading it

@evildave333 I downloaded it this morning and from the PS5 itself so I'm not sure what's going on there

Trophies do not transfer from the PS4 version, unfortunately. So I am not sure if I should start playing from scratch again... or not care about trophies at all and continue with DLC and collectibles on my +100 hour save file.

The much debated "Walked the path" trophy is in the PS5 version as well, which means you can only get platinum by completing the game on "Death March!" difficulty. I guess that ship has sailed as well then.

@NielsNL that Death March run is the very reason I didn't bother with the Platinum, those Golems were spongy enough on normal difficulties

@KundaliniRising333 Thanks for the heads up. I won’t rush to play this as it sounds like it’ll need some more patching to get stable.

Would of bought it if it was £6.99 like it has been for ages..but seen as it's bumped the price up (sigh) i will just stick with my Xbox copy if I am to replay it

Looks gorgeous in Quality Mode with Ray Tracing and the 30 FPS is smooth and stable for me (but I am used to 30 so it never has bothered me). Game looks washed out in Performance where Ray Tracing mode the colors seem to be richer and more vibrant.

@jmac1686 Yeah I was actually really surprised to see just how much of an improvement the RT mode is! Especially in towns and indoors. Global illumination is by far the best implementation of RT. Metro Exodus was a shining example of this. As long as the SSR is of high quality then I thinks it's a worthwhile trade-off for the GI.

CDPR do need to iron out some of the frame rate wobbles in the RT mode though. I'm sure it'll be the focus of an incoming update.

For any PS5 owner who preinstalled the PS4 version expecting it to automatically update to the new next gen version (like me) take note that it will update but it will still be the PS4 version just with the added quests and Netflix stuff, what I ended up having to do was go to the PS App on my phone and there I've found the PS5 version and was able to add it to my library for free and then I was able to find it on my console, having never played either version I could easily have started playing without realizing I'm not playing the next gen version

@roylaza Thanks for the tip. I keep forgetting PS version management works different than pc/other consoles, hehe.

Like others have said the sales price seems to have tripled shame would've tried it if it was the usual £6.99 goty on sale

Downloaded it at midnight ready for this morning. Got a few hours on it.

Not really had any issues bar what @KundaliniRising333 mentioned about flickering in RT mode, but I had to turn that off anyway as the 30fps felt brutal, much better in performance mode. Looked good in RT mode though, just can't hack 30fps.

Enjoying the struggle of getting used to the clunky combat but it will come back to me.

Quick casting is a huge improvement, just waiting on muscle memory to kick in so as I'm not casting Aard when I need Igni etc.

Not a fan of the new camera, had to revert back to the old way.

Improved load times are also nice.

I'm a happy bunny, been looking forward to another playthrough and happy with the improvements

@KundaliniRising333 Well, it seems like my wait continues.

I never really played the original release. I was dumb and played Dragon Age: Inquisition first - I couldn’t play open-world RPGs for many years after that.

When CDPR announced the PS5 version, I figured I’d wait for that before playing it. Now I’ll have to wait even longer for this version to get some patches before I start it. Gotta love modem-day video game releases!

@Lavalera No problem, I'm realtively new to the PlayStation world so once in a while I bump into something that works differently to what I expect

Was definitely expecting a rhyme in that first sentence

As I'll only want to play in ray tracing mode, I'll probably leave it for a while, if what I've seen online is accurate. I might have a look to see how it is in performance mode, but I want to get the real visual boost. 30fps is fine, but flickering and under 20fps is not sounding promising.

Bring on Unreal Engine so no more issues with CDPR and their optimisation on consoles (hopefully) it's seemingly something they always struggle with

@roylaza haha yes, at midnight I set it to update. Then realised I'd just downloaded a 20gb patch for the PS4 version 😬 so I will have to wait until tonight to try it now. Also, people need to make sure to click through the store to the Complete Edition which is the free purchase.

@KundaliniRising333 Had zero issues myself, haven't really bothered with RT mode though to see if that works fine.

@WallyWest yeah I hear that I pretty much switch back to Performance mode sometimes during combat but it's hard not to go to the ray tracing mode for a little bit just because it's so much different it's literally night and day like the lighting it doesn't necessarily make it look that much better it's just more accurate you'll see especially in indoor settings but even outdoor settings like the non Ray tracing mode is way too bright and it doesn't really like accurately portray Shadows from trees and things like that but yeah I hear you 60 FPS should be a given with this game it's so old but I think red engine in general is just such an unoptimized engine and we already know cdpr doesn't put a lot of effort into much lately so I'm feeling as much as this is being applauded as some amazing update I don't feel like there was actually a lot of effort put in and it was just a timed to release now situation.

I say this mainly because this update was delayed and took years after it was supposed to release and yet when you really look at it without rose tinted lenses, these are minor upgrades. This is not a massive visual overhaul; the game doesn't look good deal better. it just seems like this was kind of just put on the back burner for a while so they could try do damage control the fraud that was cyberpunk.

It's great that it was free, and any reason to play this classic is welcomed, but CDPR has a lot of making up to do for me to ever consider them a reliable studio of excellence. They burnt that rep for cash.

Anyone know the actual download file size on PS5 version?

Only got 80gb free so I feel i may have to finish some other stuff first or consider an SSD purchase.

Downloaded this morning before work..i've played about 2 hours whilst i was waiting for the footie to start..ray tracing mode is very nice and the 30fps is not too jarring but the performance mode is really what you want as its so smooth..great game and a very good update 👍

I am so excited to try this out, I committed the cardinal sin and never touched the dlc for this game.

@roylaza thank you good sir! I’ve been getting very angry at my console that I couldn’t find the native PS5 version despite having the GOTY PS4 version installed

glad I picked up the Complete edition for $9.99 last year! I don't think anyone can complain about the price since the PS5 version has been on CDPR's public roadmap for years, and the PS4 game has been on sale quite often. anyone reading this site had a chance to get the "early bird" pricing on the PS5 upgrade. makes sense for them to price it differently now as a new PS5 game, they gotta pay their developers. how else are they going to fix all these bugs?

Jesus it crashes almost as bad as during the cyberpunk release. It really ***** ***** up if it crashes during a situation in which you lose a bunch of progression, items, etc... Because of a distant auto save or not saving because you don't assume the damn game is going to crash buying and selling at a merchant.

This is starting to feel like another half assed CDPR product.

***lol right after the above rant it crashed again, then said my saved file was corrupted and had to delete it.... upon rebooting the game it acted like it was the first time I'm booting up the game and I had to reset all of my settings the gamma the HUD screen size but it still had a previous save like an auto save before that. This is so much like cyberpunk it's hilarious it's the same type of errors.

Make Multiple saves!

@Jaxx420 It's 50 GB on PS5. I'm downloading it now.

@KundaliniRising333 I saw plenty of articles about the bugs.

@fido thanks mate!

Have the game of the year edition, but this has no PS5 edition? Do I have to buy again

@Beyondclem just search for the Witcher 3 - complete edition on the store and you'll be able to claim it for free

@fido you legend, thank you

I’m playing with RT on because it looks so beautiful! But the frame rate is all over the place, so bad. If the PS5 Pro can play it at 60+FPS I’ll be happy.

Performance mode looks very blurry though and the only difference I can tell so far (only an hour in) is the monsters look more detailed. Kinda disappointed- but I’m probably remembering it looking better than it did.

@Ravix wouldn’t be so bad if it was 30fps minimum. Some places it was a stuttering mess. Unfortunately.

@mwatcher Same here! Im in Ireland and have the digital version of the ps4 version but the ps5 version also doesn’t show up as free for me

@kunties search for the complete edition in the store 😄

No free PS5 version for me. PS4 Complete Edition disc in. Search The Witcher 3 Complete Edition on the store on both the Playstation app and on the PS5 console, because there's no free PS5 upgrade path on the homescreen. Nothing. I'm offered the PS4/PS5 version for £14.99. What the hell...

Got there in the end. It shouldn't be this complicated. Does my head in. I know why though, it's to fish people in to buying the product again.