The Witcher 3 PC hotfix (December 19) - Steam overlays fixed, full patch notes, and more

The Witcher 3 has received a new hotfix on PC, addressing Steam and GOG overlay issues. The minor update is available now, and the game version will remain the same following the patch.

Since its release last week, The Witcher 3 next-gen update has been plagued with issues on the PC platform. While not as unplayable as Cyberpunk 2077 at launch, the seven-year-old title suffered from frame rate drops, DLSS problems, and various other issues on PC.

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New hotfix released by CD Projekt Red aims to improve "overall stability and performance" of The Witcher 3 next-gen

The Witcher 3 next-gen update hotfix for PC weighs in at around 2.6 GB. As mentioned earlier, it addresses one of the key issues surrounding the next-gen update — Steam and GOG overlays not working properly.

Here are the brief patch notes, according to CD Projekt Red:

"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."

In-game overlays like that of Steam or GOG have become a natural part of PC gaming. They allow players to quickly access different features like the friends list, steam chat, achievement progression, guides, and other features without minimizing or closing the game.

The Steam overlay has worked flawlessly on CD Projekt Red's title since its launch back in 2015. However, it was recently broken with the recent release of the next-gen 4.0 update. This was more than likely caused by the introduction of CDPR's own launcher, the Red Launcher, atop Steam.

As a result of adding launcher gatekeeping to a single-player title in a PC gaming market already saturated with too many launchers on top of Steam, the platform mistook the launcher for the main game window. This resulted in Steam offering the option to turn on overlay on top of the Red Launcher window instead of the main game.

With the hotfix, CDPR has addressed the issues surrounding the Steam overlay. However, there are many other issues surrounding the Witcher 3 next-gen update that need to be addressed. Considering the developers' dedication, a major patch can be expected in the days to come.