I’ve always known that I’m probably missing out big time by not playing The Witcher 3 based on the acclaim of the game, but this recent news surrounding the game proved my fear of missing out to be well founded. Apparently while originally released way back in 2015, the game recently received a major next-gen update in December of 2022 that tackled graphical updates, addressed performance issues, reimagined some HUD and map features, and added a bit of extra DLC content, all for free. Quite the nice little bow on top of a present. Very nice actually, how exactly did they afford to do all this for free? Well it was revealed that part of the reason this next-gen update was made possible was due to CD Projekt Red working directly with community modders to license and officially incorporate their mods into the update. One of said mods, HD Monsters Reworked, was implemented to give those baddies some HD textures. However, little did the studio know that HD vaginas were also part of the package. 

Now I know what you’re thinking: “God dammit, the studio is going PC as hell and wants to remove nudity from their mature series now! Damn the backpedaling! I remember when gaming would show nudity and say fuck the regulations!” but we can save that rant for another day. You see, the problem here is that actually the modder of HD Monsters Reworked kinda sorta maybe took another mod, Vaginas for Everyone, and incorporated that into their package without crediting the secondary modder or even mentioning where those modded assets came from. A modified trojan horse, if you will. Oh dear, and now the issue arises. CD Projekt Red paid some dude who did good work, but also stole another mod and put it into his own without any credit, and likely never shared a cent. For obvious reasons of fairness CD Projekt Red announced they will be removing the elements of the update that contained Vaginas for Everyone related aspects as they both never intended to pay for or include those unlicensed pieces in the first place. Additionally they made it clear in a statement that it’s not because they want to reduce nudity in their game or feel the need to incorporate new censorship.

Fans sound off, what chapter of the game is this?

I found this story amusing for a couple of reasons. First, it’s nice to see a company actually risk working with a community modder who already did work for free to reward them and officially get their product into the official version of the game. Modders are a dying breed thanks to the questionable rise of live-service gaming and it’s awesome to see one rise to the top and gain some popularity and monetary award for their efforts. However, on the flipside I wonder if the studio will ever bother to incorporate mods again after this blunder. Obviously someone in the pipeline didn’t do their due diligence and it made them look a bit like buffoons. I hope this bad experience doesn’t discourage them and other game devs from working with modders in an official capacity for updates from time to time. Have you played The Witcher 3? Will this be the last time they work with community modders for a while? Would you, ahem, add that mod RIGHT back into your PC version on the double? Cast a spell, slice your enemies, and get your mod approved in the comments below!