This post contains NSFW references, proceed at your own risk.
The highly anticipated Witcher 3: Wild Hunt next-gen update boasts a lot of things: ray tracing, DLSS, a 60fps performance mode, and, it seems, fully-formed labia. Yes, it appears that the updated version of the wildly popular CDPR game (which dropped as a free download in December of last year) has added realistic genitals for its full-frontal ladies, complete with neatly trimmed landing strips. No word yet on whether this lewder aspect of the game will make it into Netflix’s next season of the Liam Hemsworth-led show.
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In the 2015 version of the game (which has more than 200 game of the year awards and is considered one of the best RPGs ever made) any female full frontal nudity had a distinct Barbie doll effect: impossibly smooth and hairless mons pubis and the complete absence of discernible labia majora. Naturally, explicit mods cropped up that gave the often-naked female NPCs “visible vaginas and pubic hair,” because men exist and the internet is unhinged. That one’s racked up some 188,000 downloads.
Now, however, according to NSFW screenshots shared on Reddit and some real-life player testimony—my fiancé was taken aback when trying to take a picture in photo mode and noticed a bruxa had an entire bruxussy—some of The Witcher 3 women have fully formed vaginas and perfectly coiffed pubic hair. (It seems to be just the ones who are monsters, RIP.)
Though I can’t get to a point in the game to confirm this (the only full-frontal female nudity I’m aware of is either the three crones in Crookback Bog or the bruxae you can encounter on your travels), I did head to the Passiflora brothel in Novigrad, remembering that there was a bug in the original version of the game whereby one of the sex workers was fully nude in the bath. You could make her stand up by unceremoniously jumping in fully clothed. In the next-gen version of The Witcher 3, she’s got panties on no matter how many times I reload a save or exit and re-enter the Passiflora.
Knowing that The Witcher 3 next-gen updates include “fully integrated fan-made mods including 4K textures and models,” it’s only natural to consider that the realistic vagina one is one of those mods—especially when the choice of pubic hair is so distinctly similar to one of the mod’s options. So I reached out to CDPR for comment. “We’re looking into it and will have more information in the coming days,” a rep told me via email.
I’ve also reached out to the above mod’s creator via NexusMods DMs, but did not receive a response in time for publication (they haven’t been active for years). If and when we get confirmation that The Witcher 3 next-gen updates redefined the meaning of 4K textures, we’ll update this story accordingly.
Update 2/10/2023 12:18 p.m. ET: Kotaku has received an official statement from CDPR stating the addition of the realistic vaginas was “unintended” and will be removed. You can read the full story here.