Steam cross-save is a game-changer for the Switch

Apologies in advance for the unpopular statement, but I could never get into The Witcher 3. I bought it on PC when it came out nearly five years ago, and while it’s obviously beautiful and filled with great characters, something about the combat never really clicked with me and I bounced off the game altogether. But, like many other people, the endearingly irreverent Netflix adaptation made me want to give the game another shot, and the recently released Switch port felt like a good opportunity. (If nothing else, I just wanted to see how on earth the game would actually run on the Switch.

) Despite picking it up on sale, though, I still never really felt like diving back in. I didn’t play that much of the PC original, but the prospect of replaying even the opening 10 percent of a 100-hour-plus game turned out not to be all that appealing. Fortunately, I won’t have to do that anymore. CD Projekt Red just released an update for the Switch version that includes various graphical tweaks and performance improvements, but more importantly lets you share cloud saves with the PC version through Steam and CD Projekt Red’s own GOG platform.

And you know what? I think this might finally get me into The Witcher 3 for real. The process is simple — you select the cloud saves option from the main menu, which brings up a browser window from which you can log into either service. I popped in my Steam details, and in under a minute I had a list of my untouched-since-2016 save files to pick from.

Then, once the game loaded, I was right where I’d left off all those years ago. This is an incredible feature. The Switch version of The Witcher 3 might be a technical marvel for existing at all, and it lets you play the game in situations that would otherwise be impossible.

“But it’s obviously a compromised experience, and not really something I could see myself playing from start to finish.”

The ability to swap between the PC and Switch for the same adventure, though, makes the Switch version much more compelling. The whole point of the port is its portability, but this way you don’t have to play a worse-looking version on a bigger screen at home. You can have the best possible experience in any situation. I should also note that the Switch version’s new graphical options can make a meaningful difference to the game’s visual presentation.