E3 2019: Nintendo Switch's Witcher 3 Runs At 540p In Handheld Mode, 720p Dynamic Resolution Docked

Rumours were already swirling prior to E3 2019, so it wasn't entirely surprising when Nintendo's E3 Direct presentation officially confirmed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition will be coming to Switch later this year. But it's still impressive to see that the expansive open-world RPG will be playable in any form on the portable hardware. How will it perform, though?

We've already seen footage of the port as part of Nintendo's Direct, and even got a look at its most infamous image being rendered on Switch thanks to CD Projekt Red's lead PR manager, Radek Grabowski. Now, the official Twitter account for the game has spilled the beans on some of the technical details concerning Geralt of Rivia's conversion to Nintendo's hybrid console.

The Witcher 3 is an exhaustive open-world game that still looks incredible today, four years after its initial release. The fact that it's coming to Switch sounds like the work of some kind of Witcher magic, so compromises have been made to get it up and running as smoothly as possible on Nintendo's machine.

When asked about screen resolution on Twitter, the Witcher account replied that the game will run at 540p in handheld mode, and 720p with dynamic resolution enabled while docked. The dynamic resolution means that 720p could drop as needed during more complex scenes in order to keep the framerate stable. Obviously, the visual fidelity isn't going to be quite as crisp as it is in other versions of the game, but that's an understandable price to pay for being able to play one of the best games of the generation while sitting on a bus.

The Witcher Twitter account went on to answer more questions, including news that the Switch version will come on a 32GB cartridge--which includes everything, from the base game to its two expansions and 16 additional pieces of DLC, no downloads required--and that it will not support cross-saves.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition is being developed by Saber Interactive in close cooperation with CD Projekt Red, and is due for release at some point in 2019.

More E3 news:

• Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 teased
• New Xbox console, Scarlett, revealed
• Xbox Scarlett details: 8K, 120 FPS, SSD
• Elden Ring is From Software and George RR Martin's new game
• Cyberpunk 2077 release date announced
• Final Fantasy VII Remake release date announced
• Marvel's Avengers revealed