PC players may have quenched their thirst for witching quite a while ago, but Xbox 360 players still have yet to witch at all. But take heart, aspiring console witchers. Warner Bros. Interactive announced today that it will handle the publishing duties for the 360 version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in North America, due early next year.

Warner Bros is adopting a critical hit, but the game comes with its share of baggage. Developer CD Projekt Red is being sued by Namco Bandai over publishing rights in Europe. Namco Bandai published the PC version in the territory, but CD Projekt Red's decision to hand European console publishing to THQ rubbed Namco the wrong way.

Read more: 360 version's 'significant enhancements' »

With the release of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings fast approaching, Good Old Games--the sibling of developer of CD Projekt RED--is having a fun day of Witcher-related merriment. Along with beginning pre-loading and launching a DRM-free $5 version of the original, it's made a small technical tweak which, surely by coincidence, will help Australians dodge the sequel's censorship.

The most interesting bit of Witcher action today is the one which initially seems entirely unrelated--GOG announced that it will no longer use IP addresses to determine where a user 'is.' This will supposedly help those who are abroad when they make a purchase or whose location is determined incorrectly by the Geo-IP database, as well as respecting user privacy by not tracking un-needed data. Read more »

Big plans are afoot at Good Old Games, the digital distributor revealed during owner CD Projekt's CDP Days 2011 Spring Conference today. These include a new downloader, messaging, new releases and the landing of big-name publishers.

GOG cruelly teased that it has signed a deal with either Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Take Two, LucasArts or Microsoft Game Studios, declining to specify which. Over 25 games from the mystery publisher will start arriving on GOG in early summer. Read more »

In "old Shack" we would use the Weekend Discussion post as a platform for the editors at Shacknews to discuss what games they would be enjoying over the weekend. As outlined in this Chatty post, that doesn't really work with the new format.

What we've decided to do is to bring the conversation here, to a frontpage post. This allows us to highlight Chatty on the frontpage as it was in the past and--with the link between comments on the frontpage and in Chatty--give our users a place to share their current gaming experiences. Read more »

Inspired by Garnett's recent (if late) discovery of CD Projekt's The Witcher (and The Witcher 2's approaching release), I decided to go back and restart Geralt's first adventure. It had been a while since I'd fired up the game, but it's been at the top of my "favorite games I haven't finished, yet" pile for a couple of years now.

While the game is starting to show its age a bit (especially when compared to more recent, similarly-structured games like Dragon Age), I'm still really impressed as to how well the experience holds up, roughly four years after release. Of course, The Witcher has received significant presentational updates since it first hit the shelves, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still the best looking game that uses the Aurora Engine, even including titles produced by BioWare. If you're an RPG fan that somehow missed it, The Witcher is a game you should go back and play. It's only $19.99 on Steam, at the moment. Well worth it. Read more »

CD Projekt's dueling 'The Witcher' browser game, The Witcher: Versus, will be release for iPhone and iPod Touch, Destructoid spotted Polygamia reporting.

The Witcher: Versus involves challenging other players to duels as one of several human or monster classes then queuing up orders to defeat them, watching it all fought out by models from The Witcher. Victory brings experience to level up and gain new skills as well as currency to stock up on new weapons and items. Read more »

Direct2Drive's '24 Days of Christmas' sale today brings a 50% reduction on CD Projekt RED's RPG The Witcher, on sale for $19.99 until roughly 1pm EST tomorrow.

Digital nipple fans will be delighted to hear that The Witcher was recently restored to its full uncensored glory in the US. I have rambled incoherently about The Witcher but in short it's an enjoyable RPG with a refreshing European flavour, well worth $20. Read more »

A pair of modern European PC classics are on sale at digital distributors, with The Witcher reduced by 50% and a grand 75% off S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

The coarse fantasy world of The Witcher can now be entered for $20 on Steam and Impulse. The discounts celebrate the worldwide digital availability of CD Projekt RED's fantastic fantasy RPG, which had previously been unavailable in many regions. Read more »

CD Projekt, the Polish developer of the cult favorite PC RPG The Witcher, is set to be acquired by the "nearly defunct" Polish computer company Optimus S.A.

In an easily confusing set of financial trickery, the move will actually allow the owners of CD Projekt to become the owners of the new public company, enabling the once-private company to go public on the stock exchange. Read more »

Original: The debut trailer for the follow-up to CD Projekt's PC RPG The Witcher has cropped up on YouTube. Though the video is boldly marked for "internal use only," the slick presentation has many suspecting a coordinated release. Regardless of the circumstance, here's the first look at the game, subtitled "Assassins of Kings."

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Update: "We can't and won't try to deny the facts," CD Project RED CEO Adam Kicinski said of the leaked video in a statement, explaining "we are looking for a potential publisher (or publishers) for this title, and this leak is an uncontrolled side effect." Read more »