As it is seems to be a new trend among AAA games, the final version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is not quite as visually impressive as the first gameplay demos CD Projekt Red showed for game. Whatifgaming claims to have contacted an anonymous source at the studio, that confirmed the graphical downgrade and pointed to the PS4 and Xbox One as the main culprits.
The source reportedly said that 2013 was a particularly difficult year for the developer, who only had a very crude idea of the specifications of the consoles. Apparently, when they finally received the consoles, they were not able to support the level of detail they had planned for the game. This presented two possible paths for CD Projekt Red: create three different versions of the game with variable graphic qualities, or find the nearest denominator and create a single version based on this commonality. According to the source, CD Projekt Red opted for the latter.
As this is an anonymous source, this can not be seen as a confirmation, but it certainly seems plausible. And while it is clear that there is a graphical downgrade between the initial demos and the final version of the game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is still a beautiful game, both on consoles and PC. More importantly, it is one of the best adventures available this generation, as can read in our review.