The Witcher 3 Remastered Launches September 29: See What’s New in the Free Upgrade

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a milestone in CD Projekt Red’s history, and the company has continued updating the game more than a decade after its original release.

The last major overhaul arrived in 2022, when CD Projekt Red updated the visuals for the current console generation, added new secondary content and introduced several gameplay improvements. Now, as the studio prepares for the new Songs of the Past expansion, it is giving the game another extensive graphical and mechanical upgrade.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered launches on September 29, 2026. It will be free for existing owners on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Owners of the original Nintendo Switch version will also be able to claim the Nintendo Switch 2 version at no additional cost.

This is far more than a texture update. CD Projekt Red is changing combat, movement, character progression, monster behavior, menus, lighting and several systems that players interact with throughout the entire game.

What Will Change in The Witcher 3 Remastered?

The list of improvements is enormous. The Remastered update modernizes the game while also preparing its systems for Songs of the Past, the new paid expansion scheduled for 2027.

Here are the improvements revealed so far:

Gameplay and quality-of-life improvements

• Cross-platform mod support
• Refined animations
• Immersive meditation
• New quest tracking
• User interface improvements
• Looting rework
• New accessibility features
• Tutorial modernization
• Improved menu navigation
• Enhanced combat
• Improved traversal and movement
• New Witcher Signs effects
• Revamped mount handling
• Enhanced monster behaviors
• Skill tree revamp
• Transmogrification
• Expanded Photo Mode
• New finishers
• Performance improvements

Visual improvements

• Refreshed motion blur
• Updated textures
• Foliage shading rework
• HDR improvements
• Ground-truth ambient occlusion, or GTAO
• Ray-tracing improvements
• Global lighting rework
• New shading model
• Subsurface scattering
• New tone mapper

The PC version will also support new Nvidia technologies, including path tracing, DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction and Dynamic Multi Frame Generation on compatible GeForce RTX graphics cards.

The extent of some changes will only become clear when the complete patch notes are released, but what CD Projekt Red has already presented shows that this is a substantial reworking of the game rather than a simple graphics patch.

Who Gets the Free Upgrade?

The Remastered upgrade will be available on:

• PC through GOG, Steam and the Epic Games Store
• PlayStation 5
• Xbox Series X|S
• Nintendo Switch 2

Players who already own The Witcher 3 on one of the qualifying PC storefronts, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S will receive the Remastered upgrade for free.

Owners of The Witcher 3 on the original Nintendo Switch can claim the Nintendo Switch 2 version at no additional cost. Digital owners can already reserve the upgrade, while physical-copy owners will be able to claim it when Remastered launches.

PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will not receive the Remastered version. However, owners on those consoles can now download Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine for free.

Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine Are Now Free

Players who previously owned only the base game now receive both original expansions at no additional cost:

• Hearts of Stone
• Blood and Wine

This change has already taken effect. Players only need to update the game to the latest version, although owners on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One may need to claim the expansions separately from their respective stores.

The standalone expansions have been removed from sale, and official storefronts now offer only The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition. Players who already owned the expansions keep them in their libraries, but their content is now integrated into the base game.

Existing save files, achievements, trophies and cross-progression remain compatible.

New PC System Requirements

The system requirements have not yet been updated on every store page, but CD Projekt Red has already confirmed that the next update will establish a new minimum configuration for The Witcher 3 and Songs of the Past.

The biggest changes are the requirement for Windows 11, an SSD and DirectX 12. Windows 10 and traditional hard drives will no longer be officially supported.

The store page for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past lists the following system requirements:

Minimum requirements

• Operating system: 64-bit Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600
• Memory: 12GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB or Intel Arc A580
• Video memory: 6GB
• Storage: 70GB available space on an SSD
• API: DirectX 12

Recommended requirements

• Operating system: 64-bit Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super, AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT or Intel Arc B580
• Storage: 70GB available space on an SSD

CD Projekt Red says players who cannot meet the new minimum requirements will be able to revert to an earlier version of the game on supported PC storefronts. However, that older build will not receive the Remastered improvements or future technical updates.

The Witcher 3 Is Currently on Sale

At the time of writing, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition is discounted by 50% on Steam, Xbox and PlayStation, bringing the price down from US$49.99 to US$24.99.

The Nintendo Switch 2 version is available for preorder for US$59.99.

Because the Remastered upgrade and the two original expansions are included, buying the Complete Edition during the promotion gives new players access to the base game, Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine and the upcoming Remastered version.

In addition to its usual platforms, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered is also coming to Battle.net for the first time, through a new partnership between CD Projekt Red and Blizzard Entertainment. The Remastered version will go live on Blizzard’s platform the same day as everywhere else, September 29.

Sale prices and expiration dates vary by platform.

The New Songs of the Past Expansion

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past does not yet have an exact release date or announced price. CD Projekt Red has only confirmed that the paid expansion will arrive sometime in 2027.

The expansion takes Geralt to a completely new region called Letten, an apparently idyllic land filled with rural traditions, celebrations and peaceful landscapes. Beneath that appearance, however, lies a dark secret connected to a long-dormant evil at the center of the region.

Players can expect:

• A new main story
• Dozens of new quests
• New characters and returning friends
• New points of interest
• New enemies
• New abilities
• Unique mutagens
• A new chain weapon
• Choices with meaningful consequences

Songs of the Past is being co-developed by CD Projekt Red and Fool’s Theory, a studio whose leadership includes developers who previously worked on The Witcher 3.

The expansion arrives as CD Projekt Red prepares to pass the franchise from Geralt to Ciri. The company currently has a planned 2028 release window for The Witcher 4, making Songs of the Past a return to Geralt’s story roughly one year before the beginning of the new saga.

For now, players can return to the base game and play the two original expansions, now included at no additional cost, while waiting for the redesigned combat and progression systems arriving on September 29.

See you on September 29, witchers. CD Projekt Red official announcement.