Eleven years after it shipped, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting the biggest overhaul of its life. During Gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live on August 25, CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, a top-to-bottom rework of combat, progression, visuals, and quality-of-life that launches September 29, 2026.
The headline: for most existing owners, it is a free upgrade. Alongside it, both story expansions — Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine — are now included with the base game at no extra cost, and a brand-new third expansion, Songs of the Past, is coming in 2027.
This guide covers who gets the free upgrade, how to claim it on every platform, everything the remaster changes, and whether it is worth jumping in now or waiting.
Release Date and Platforms
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Release date | September 29, 2026 |
| Platforms | PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, Battle.net), PS5 / PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 |
| Cost for existing owners | Free on qualifying platforms |
| New-buyer price (Switch 2) | $59.99 |
| New-buyer price (PC / PS5 / Xbox) | Not yet announced |
| Expansions included | Hearts of Stone + Blood and Wine |
| Developer | CD Projekt Red with Yigsoft |
The remaster also marks The Witcher 3's debut on Battle.net, part of Blizzard's push to open the launcher to third-party publishers. Xbox players get Play Anywhere support, sharing purchases and saves across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PCs, and compatible handhelds like the Xbox Ally X.
Free Upgrade Eligibility, Platform by Platform
This is where most of the confusion lives. Here is what CD Projekt Red has confirmed:
| You own The Witcher 3 on... | Free Remastered upgrade? | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Steam / GOG / Epic (PC) | Yes — confirmed | Your Complete Edition updates automatically on September 29; no action needed |
| PlayStation 5 | Yes — confirmed | Download the new version from your library on launch day |
| Xbox Series X|S (or Xbox One copy) | Yes — confirmed | Download from the Xbox Store on September 29 |
| Nintendo Switch (digital) | Yes — Switch 2 native version | Free "pre-order" of the Switch 2 Remastered is live on the eShop now |
| Nintendo Switch (physical) | Yes — Switch 2 native version | Claim the free upgrade on the eShop after September 29 launch |
| PS4 / Xbox One (as a platform) | No — current-gen only | The remaster itself does not run on last-gen hardware |
Note the asymmetry: PS5 and Xbox Series owners get the remaster directly, while original Switch owners receive the native Nintendo Switch 2 version — which carries its own exclusive features, including touch-screen support, HDR, and up to 120Hz output on compatible displays.
The Expansions Are Already Free — Right Now
You do not have to wait until September 29 for one of the best parts of this deal. CD Projekt Red has already made Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine free for every owner of the base game, across all platforms. On Steam and GOG, the older standalone listings have been replaced by the Complete Edition, and Xbox Store currently lists both expansions at no cost.
If you already own The Witcher 3 and somehow never played the expansions, both are sitting in your library today — a combined 30-plus hours of what many consider the best content in the entire game.
What the Remaster Actually Changes
This is far more than the 2022 next-gen update, which was mostly a graphics patch. According to CD Projekt Red's announcement, the Remastered edition reworks core systems:
Combat and movement
- Redone combat animations with smoother target transitions and gap-closing
- New finishers built around Witcher Signs, plus new Sign effects
- An adaptive combat camera that pulls back in group fights
- More dynamic vaulting, traversal, and platforming
- Revamped Roach handling — horse riding that no longer fights you
Progression and customization
- A complete skill tree rebuild with more flexible builds, new perks, and restructured abilities
- Transmogrification — wear one armor's look with another's stats, a long-requested feature
- Expanded photo mode, immersive meditation that shows real-time world transitions instead of a fade to black
- Reworked looting, quest tracking, menus, tutorials, and new accessibility options
Enhanced monster behavior means familiar fights will not play out exactly as you remember — enemies gain new moves and reactions.
PC tech upgrades are the deepest yet: full path tracing, Ray Reconstruction, ray-traced hair, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0 support, native DirectX 12, and rendering parallelization. Cross-platform mod support arrives too, with Xbox Series confirmed to accept user-created quests, weapons, and balance changes.
What Comes After: Songs of the Past and The Witcher 4
The remaster is the opening move of a multi-year roadmap for the franchise:
- Songs of the Past — the third, full-fledged expansion, arriving in 2027. It takes Geralt to the new region of Letten, Dandelion's homeland, with a new chain weapon, new monsters, at least one new romance, and a scope comparable to Blood and Wine. It is co-developed with Fool's Theory and is explicitly positioned as a narrative bridge to The Witcher 4.
- The Witcher 4 — currently planned for 2028, with Ciri as protagonist.
In other words, the Remastered edition is CD Projekt Red's on-ramp: a refreshed base game, free expansions, and a 2027 DLC that feeds directly into the next mainline entry.
Should You Buy In Now?
Three honest answers, depending on who you are:
Already own it — do nothing, and check that your expansions are claimed. The remaster arrives free on September 29.
Never played it — the cheapest entry right now is a secondhand PS4 or Xbox One copy (which upgrades free), or waiting to see the announced new-buyer pricing on PC, PS5, and Xbox. The Switch 2 version's $59.99 tag is the only confirmed price so far.
Lapsed player with 100+ hours logged — this is the version designed to pull you back. The skill tree rebuild, transmog, and combat rework target exactly the audience that loved the game but found its jank dated. And with Songs of the Past landing in 2027 as a bridge to The Witcher 4, there has never been a better moment to refresh your save.
While you wait for September 29, the month is stacked: Phantom Blade Zero launches September 9, Marvel's Wolverine arrives September 15 on PS5, and Blood of Dawnwalker lands September 3. And if turn-based tactics is your lane, our Star Wars Zero Company review roundup covers the year's biggest critic-versus-players divide.
