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Today, Atari officially announced The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The news isn’t exactly shocking considering that a few days ago we caught a leaked video of a developer spilling the beans on the title. Regardless, there are a few interesting facts from the new announcement. The most notable one is that the game is being “built from the ground up” to better reflect the console experience.

That means new combat centered around the utilization of a controller and an entirely new engine to ensure both consoles are being used effecting. In addition to this the game’s developer CD Projekt RED are promising “a ton of other features that will play to the consoles’ strengths.” The fact that I will eventually be able to play The Witcher while lying down is almost good enough for me.

Aside from the new the new engine and combat, it remains to be seen how much content will change from the original PC title. Generally speaking, most PC-to-console games only add a few new environments and missions. Oh, and it is coming out quite soon. According to the press release listed after the break, expect it around Fall 2009.

‘THE WITCHER: RISE OF THE WHITE WOLF’
COMING AUTUMN 2009 TO PLAYSTATION®3 SYSTEM AND XBOX 360®

- Award Winning, Million-selling Role-playing Franchise Coming to Consoles with Thrilling New Dynamic Combat, State of the Art Visuals and Unparalleled Story -

NEW YORK, NY – December 2, 2008 – At the ATARI LIVE showcase event in London today, Atari and CD Projekt RED announced plans for the global release of The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf on PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft in autumn 2009.  

Based on the story of multi award-winning million-selling PC role-playing game The Witcher and completely rebuilt pixel by pixel for the new generation of consoles, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf brings the unrivalled RPG experience to Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 with a brand new combat system for thrilling dynamic action, and a new engine delivering matchless state-of-the-art visuals.  The game is underpinned with the evocative and enthralling story which helped secure the original game’s status as PC role-playing game of 2007, based on the mature and compelling universe created by renowned Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski.

“The creative vision and dedication to the quality of the player experience that CD Projekt RED bring to the Witcher games is extraordinary, and it’s great to be working with them to bring the Witcher universe to console gamers,” said Phil Harrison, President of Infogrames Entertainment, the parent company of Atari. “Taking this brilliantly realised world to PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 gamers for the first time is a breakthrough in the development of this important franchise.”

“We’re thrilled to continue our great relationship with Atari, whose refreshing focus on quality fits squarely with our own, to bring Geralt and the Witcher franchise to an even larger audience – fans who expressed to us very clearly that The Witcher would be a natural fit on consoles,” said Adam Kiciński, CEO, CD Projekt RED. “Console gamers’ tastes are maturing; they’re looking for deeper story-driven experiences that are very hard to find in today’s console market. We’re developing this remake based upon the compelling narrative that helped The Witcher on PC sell more than a million copies and win more than 100 awards, building everything else from the ground up to be the definitive console RPG.”

Based on the universe created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf puts players in the role of Geralt, a professional monster slayer who exists on the fringes of a complex society troubled by the kind of problems more commonly found on the front pages of newspapers than in a fantasy universe.  Taken as a child, mutated, and trained in the arcane ways of the witchers, Geralt is a reluctant hero, who nonetheless finds himself all too frequently in the heat of battles that are not his own.  In this world there is no right or wrong, only decisions and consequences.  

With The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, the best PC RPG in recent years is being completely remade as the ultimate console RPG. The title is being developed by a core team from CD Projekt RED working alongside France-based Widescreen Games who provide their cross-platform DaVinci engine technology.  For more information about The Witcher visit www.thewitcher.com and for more details about Atari’s entire product line up visit www.atari.com.