ReleaseConfirmed29 September 2026Updated 30 September 2026

The Witcher 3 Remastered is out now, and most existing owners pay nothing

CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered on September 29 as a free upgrade for current owners on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2. It bundles both expansions and sets the stage for a new one, Songs of the Past, in 2027.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — game art via IGDB

Update — 30 September 2026

Two things have firmed up a day on. First, the Switch 2 workaround is more specific - and more permissive - than it looked. According to Nintendo Life, you take any physical Switch 1 copy of The Witcher 3, update it to version 4.04d, boot it, pick 'Now available on Switch 2' from the start menu, claim the remaster for nothing and let the 48.6GB download run. The cartridge does not have to stay in the console afterwards, and Nintendo Life's own suggestion is to borrow one from a friend or a library. CD Projekt Red still has not commented on it. Second, the visual overhaul is dividing people. Eurogamer's write-up of the community reaction leads on complaints that the new lighting is lifeless; the recurring objections are that the remaster is brighter, glossier and lower in contrast than the 2022 next-gen version, that fires no longer light their surroundings or reflect in water, and that fog has thinned out. Some PC players are turning bloom off to claw the old look back. The game's lifetime Steam user score is unaffected, but its recent score has dropped on the back of remaster-specific complaints, mostly about performance.

Update — 30 September 2026

The Remastered edition's reviews have landed, and they are strong enough to top the year. According to VGC, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered now sits at 94 on Metacritic, making it 2026's highest-scoring game: it edges out the twin-stick shooter Sektori, which also scored 94 but ranks slightly lower in Metacritic's own weighting. VGC places it 63rd on Metacritic's all-time list, above the 3DS Ocarina of Time remake and Chrono Cross, and short of the top 50, which needs 95 or better. CD Projekt Red has also explained why the overhaul went as deep as it did. Pawel Sasko, who consulted on the remaster and is associate director on the next Cyberpunk game, told VGC that "when you look at the gameplay side, it was obvious that this was almost the weakest side," adding that "when you look at the opinions of the journalists and the players, everyone's kind of saying the same thing, which is that gameplay is the weakest part of The Witcher 3." He said the team worked from what annoyed people most, naming exploration, Geralt's movement and the absence of finishers, because that "makes the biggest difference in how the game feels to play."

Update — 30 September 2026

CD Projekt Red's press release spells out the platform conditions, and Switch 2 is the odd one out. The remaster is a free upgrade for anyone who owns The Witcher 3 on GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, but on Switch 2 the requirement is owning the game on the original Switch. Either way both expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, are included even for base-game owners. The native Switch 2 build adds motion controls for crossbow aiming and bomb throwing, gyro aiming, and touch controls for menus and Gwent. The remaster can also now be bought new on Battle.net and the Microsoft Store, the latter as an Xbox Play Anywhere title. Players have also found that the Switch 2 requirement is looser in practice than it reads. Reports say inserting an original Switch cartridge, launching the game and triggering the upgrade from inside it grants the Switch 2 version permanently - the cartridge does not have to stay in the system afterwards, and can then be handed to someone else to do the same. CD Projekt Red has not commented on that, and it has not been verified first-hand, so treat it as reported rather than as an endorsed route.

Update — 29 September 2026

The Witcher 3 has set a new all-time concurrent player record on Steam in the hours since the Remastered edition went live, peaking at roughly 120,000 players. That clears the game's previous high of 103,329, set more than six years ago during the surge around Netflix's The Witcher series. Not everyone is getting a clean run at it, though: players on AMD Radeon cards are reporting serious graphical faults on Windows, including missing trees, black artefacts and glitching water. CD Projekt Red's support account has told players to update to recommended drivers and listed AMD Adrenalin 26.9.2 as the target version, while noting it is "not released yet, coming later." The currently available public AMD driver predates the remaster. NVIDIA and Intel users have released driver versions to move to.

Eleven years after launch, Geralt's biggest adventure has been given another full pass. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered went live on September 29, and CD Projekt Red is handing it to most existing players for free rather than selling it as a separate product.

Who gets it for free

If you already own The Witcher 3 on GOG, Steam, the Epic Games Store, PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, the Remastered version is a free upgrade. On Nintendo's side, Switch 2 players qualify if they own the original Switch version.

New players can also buy it on Battle.net and the Microsoft Store, where it's an Xbox Play Anywhere title. CD Projekt Red's announcement doesn't list a price. According to the studio, the Remastered edition includes both expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.

What's actually different

The upgrade goes further than sharper textures, though those are here too: environments, characters and monsters all get higher-detail assets, alongside reworked foliage and lighting. PC players get a path tracing option. On PS5 Pro, the game uses Sony's PSSR upscaling, with a ray-traced mode targeting 60fps and a performance mode that reaches up to 90fps.

The bigger changes are to how it plays. CD Projekt Red has rebuilt the skill system and rebalanced abilities, so long-standing character builds may not work the way they used to. Combat gets new animations and finishers plus an adaptive camera, movement and traversal animations have been overhauled, and the menus have been redesigned.

Mods are now cross-platform through mod.io integration, which means console players can finally get at some of the community work that used to be PC-only. The Switch 2 version adds motion controls, gyro aiming, mouse support and touchscreen input.

What's next

CD Projekt Red is positioning the remaster as the base for Songs of the Past, a new Witcher 3 expansion due in 2027. The announcement doesn't give further details about the expansion, and it doesn't say whether the pre-remaster version will stay available. That could matter to players running large PC mod setups.

Why it matters

Most people who own The Witcher 3 can now get an upgraded version without paying again. The skill rework and cross-platform mods make it feel noticeably different, not just better-looking, and with Songs of the Past confirmed for 2027, now is a sensible time to return to a save or start a new playthrough.