The Witcher 3 Remastered Arrives September 29 as a Free Upgrade for Most Players

CD Projekt Red has officially unveiled The Witcher 3 Remastered, which will launch as a complimentary upgrade for all owners on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on September 29. The announcement came during a spectacular finale to Gamescom's Opening Night Live, where the developer also detailed a host of new features and visual enhancements for the remastered edition, which we've outlined below.

However, Nintendo Switch owners won't receive a free upgrade. Instead, a separate native version of The Witcher 3 Remastered will be released for the Switch 2, sold individually. Additionally, the remastered game will be available on PC via Battle.net for the first time, and purchasing it there will unlock a Geralt-themed skin in Diablo 4.

The Witcher 3 Remastered—and the current game, starting today—will include access to the first two expansions at no extra cost. This comes ahead of the upcoming third expansion, Songs of the Past, which is slated for 2027.

Key features of the remaster include refined combat mechanics, improved movement and traversal, revamped horse handling, enhanced monster AI, a reworked skill tree, armor transmogrification, an expanded photo mode, new finishing moves, and much more.

Other additions include long-awaited cross-platform mod support, new quest tracking, immersive meditation, polished animations, UI improvements, a reworked looting system, refreshed motion blur, new accessibility options, modernized tutorials, HDR enhancements, a foliage shading overhaul, improved ray tracing, a global lighting rework, a new shading model, subsurface scattering, and a new tone mapper.

The announcement also mentioned PlayStation 5 Pro support, Xbox Play Anywhere compatibility, and unspecified "exclusive features" for the Nintendo Switch 2. On PC, the game will support Nvidia DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, Intel XESS 2.0, path tracing, ray reconstruction, native DX12, and rendering parallelization. Even ray-traced hair will be included.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that Songs of the Past will feature more Gwent, the franchise's addictive card game.

As previously confirmed, there was no sign of The Witcher 4 at the event—though none was expected. Yesterday, we learned that the highly anticipated Ciri-starring sequel is targeting a 2028 release window and is still in active development.

"Our team at CD Projekt Red HQ is hard at work on a brand new saga, one with Ciri at the helm," said joint CEO Michał Nowakowski. "We have over 500 incredibly talented developers creating something truly special for you. The Witcher 4 features a huge and immersive open world, intense and action-packed gameplay, and a deep, impactful story that we hope will stay with you for a long time. This is our biggest, boldest, and most ambitious game to date.

"I know you're eager to know when it's coming. We hear that question constantly. While we're not showing The Witcher 4 at the event and aren't ready to share an exact date, I can tell you this: we're targeting a 2028 release window.

"I know it's a wait, and you'd love to play it sooner, but let the team cook. It will be worth it. Until then, there's plenty more The Witcher to come, including Songs of the Past in 2027. And rest assured, gamescom is in our plans for the coming years."

For a full recap of tonight's announcements, check out our roundup of everything revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026.