The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is shaping up more and more as a RPG powerhouse for storytelling, gameplay and visuals, and Lead Gameplay Designer Maciej Szcześnik seems definitely confident that both the PS4 and the Xbox One will be able to raise to the challenge just fine, as he told GamesTM in an interview:

We wanted to put as much force as we could into the punch that, we hope, will change the RPG genre for a long time. Both consoles are wonderful pieces of hardware and allow us to go crazy on the visuals and gameplay ideas. This next generation of hardware will mean a next generation of graphics and storytelling in open-world RPGs.

Szcześnik also mentioned that, while the story remains the focal point of the game, the development team is working hard to making sure that the action combat part of the game will be up to par:

We want to make an extremely good RPG for next-gen platforms. Our intention is to convince people that it’s a revolutionary game not because it’s the only game available, but because it’s truly good. Will it help? It might, but we’re not thinking about it – we’re making the best game we can, not wishing there’s no competition when we launch. That would be stupid, because there’s always another game, be it RPGs, strategy, sports or shooters; it’s not like gamers play one genre only. In terms of our audience, I hope it reaches everyone who values a good story in a mature environment. The story is always the most important part of the experience for us, but this time around combat could stand on its own so even action-orientated gamers will like it.

CD Projekt RED's strictly hardware-agnostic policy is quite interesting, especially in an industry where many developers are either starting to take sides or struggle to provide equal performance on both consoles. Yet, the house of The Witcher has already surprised us many times, so it's very possible that they'll manage to sweep us off our feet once more.

We still don't have a firm release date for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but hopefully we'll manage to play it by the end of the year.