The Witcher 3 Remastered Announced at Gamescom 2026 With September Release Date, Free Upgrade, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC Support

Summary

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered launches September 29, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native Nintendo Switch 2 version.
• The overhaul adds upgraded visuals, revised combat and movement, improved monster behavior, a redesigned skill system and cross-platform mod support.
• Existing owners get the Remastered upgrade for free, while CD Projekt Red also revealed the new Songs of the Past expansion for 2027.

Geralt of Rivia apparently has no interest in retirement.

CD Projekt Red officially announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026, giving its 2015 RPG another substantial overhaul more than a decade after release. The new version launches September 29, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, while Nintendo Switch 2 will receive a new native edition.

Calling this another graphical update undersells what CD Projekt Red is doing. The Witcher 3 already received a major current-generation upgrade in 2022. Remastered goes considerably further, touching combat, progression, movement, monster behavior and several systems that have been showing their age for a while.

Perhaps more importantly for people who bought the game years ago, the Remastered upgrade will be free on qualifying platforms.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is much more than prettier textures

CD Projekt Red has confirmed improvements to environment, NPC and monster textures, alongside major foliage upgrades. Lighting, rendering and ray tracing are also being reworked as the studio attempts to drag the Continent a little closer to current graphical standards.

Pretty mud in Velen is nice. Fixing the parts players actually interact with for 100 hours is considerably more interesting.

Combat receives revamped animations, new finishers and an adaptive camera. According to CD Projekt Red, Geralt can close distances more fluidly during fights, while the camera changes its position according to the number of enemies involved. Larger encounters can pull the view outward, while smaller fights allow tighter framing.

Traversal and general movement have also been revised. CD Projekt Red specifically lists improved movement, redesigned mount handling, new Witcher Sign effects and enhanced monster behavior among the changes. Anyone who has ever watched Roach attempt advanced geometry against a wooden fence may consider the horse update overdue by roughly eleven years.

CD Projekt Red has redesigned The Witcher 3’s skill tree

One of the biggest changes involves character progression.

Rather than polishing the existing interface and calling it Tuesday, CD Projekt Red has reimagined the skill system. New perks and abilities have been introduced, existing skills have been altered and the skill trees themselves have been redesigned to offer more flexibility when creating builds.

That distinction matters. The Witcher 3 Remastered is beginning to look less like the usual higher-resolution re-release and more like a broad mechanical revision of the original game.

Other confirmed features include transmogrification, expanded Photo Mode options, immersive meditation, refined animations and cross-platform mod support. Xbox Series X|S will gain access to mods capable of adding content such as quests, weapons, equipment and balance modifications.

CD Projekt Red has also confirmed changes to traversal, Witcher Signs, monster behavior and Roach, suggesting plenty of smaller adjustments remain to be detailed before launch.

The Witcher 3 Remastered will be free for existing owners

The pricing decision is arguably the easiest part of the announcement to like.

Players who already own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on qualifying PC and current-generation console platforms will receive the Remastered upgrade at no additional cost. CD Projekt Red has listed PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S among the supported upgrade platforms.

There is another unusually generous wrinkle.

Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are being made available at no additional cost to owners of the base game. CD Projekt Red announced the change during Gamescom, meaning people who never purchased the expansions can add Geralt’s two existing post-launch adventures before Remastered arrives.

Those expansions are hardly tiny DLC packs either. Their addition effectively turns existing copies of the base game into a considerably larger package without asking players to purchase yet another “ultimate definitive complete anniversary enhanced edition,” a naming convention the games business normally approaches with unsettling enthusiasm.

Nintendo Switch 2 and Battle.net versions are coming

Remastered also expands The Witcher 3 to two new destinations.

A native Nintendo Switch 2 version launches September 29. The game will also arrive on Battle.net through a new partnership between CD Projekt Red and Blizzard Entertainment.

The PC version will therefore be available through Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG and Battle.net. The Blizzard partnership extends beyond simply putting Geralt in another launcher, too. CD Projekt Red says buyers of the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion through Battle.net will receive a Geralt-inspired cosmetic for Diablo IV, with further information planned for BlizzCon.

Songs of the Past gives Geralt another adventure in 2027

Gamescom delivered another surprise alongside the remaster.

CD Projekt Red revealed the first look at The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Songs of the Past, a third major expansion scheduled for 2027. Development is being handled jointly by CD Projekt Red and Fool’s Theory.

The story takes Geralt to Letten, a new region described as a seemingly peaceful land built around rural traditions, harvests and festivals. Predictably, this being The Witcher, something unpleasant is festering underneath all the cheerful agriculture.

Geralt travels there with Dandelion and encounters new monsters, abilities and mutagens. The expansion also introduces the chain as a usable weapon, referencing Geralt’s monster-hunting equipment from the opening cinematic of the original The Witcher.

Songs of the Past will be sold separately and is planned for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.

Why remaster The Witcher 3 again?

There is an obvious cynical answer: because people will play it.

There is also a fairly convincing business case. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide and collected over 250 Game of the Year awards, according to CD Projekt Red. Few single-player RPGs have remained commercially relevant for this long.

The free-upgrade model makes the strategy more interesting. CD Projekt Red is not simply putting nicer shadows on an old game and charging existing owners $40. The studio is using Remastered to rebuild interest in Geralt’s story before Songs of the Past arrives in 2027, while simultaneously bringing the game to Switch 2 and Battle.net.

Questions remain. CD Projekt Red has yet to provide every technical detail for each platform, and PC players in particular will want to see hardware requirements and performance benchmarks before getting too excited about improved ray tracing.

Still, the feature list already suggests The Witcher 3 Remastered is closer to an extensive modernization project than a routine texture refresh.

Eleven years after its original release, The Witcher 3 is somehow preparing for another launch day.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered releases September 29, 2026.

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