More than a decade after its original release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting the remaster treatment, and CD Projekt Red isn't charging existing owners a cent for it. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered launches September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and a native Nintendo Switch 2 version, arriving as a free upgrade for anyone who already owns the game on a qualifying platform. Here's everything included in the remaster, plus details on the newly announced expansion that's coming after it.
What's Actually Changing
CD Projekt Red isn't just bumping up the resolution and calling it a day. The remaster brings a genuinely long list of improvements across visuals, combat, and general feel:
- Upgraded visuals across environments, lighting, and character models
- Enhanced combat systems and revamped mount handling
- Improved traversal and movement
- New effects for witcher signs
- Enhanced monster behaviors
- A full skill tree revamp
- Transmogrification, letting players keep their favorite armor's appearance while using better stats
- New finishing moves
- An expanded photo mode
That's on top of the game already being a sprawling, densely packed open-world RPG, so the remaster is effectively asking players to rediscover a game many already consider one of the best of its generation, now with over a decade of technical hindsight applied to it.
It's Free, and So Are the Expansions
The headline detail here is the price: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms. CD Projekt Red is also making the game's two major expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, free for all players going forward, removing what was previously a genuine barrier to experiencing some of the best-reviewed DLC ever made for an RPG.
For a game this old to get a meaningful visual and mechanical overhaul at no additional cost is a notably generous move in an industry increasingly comfortable charging full price for remasters of games that are barely a few years old.
A New Expansion Is Already on the Way
Alongside the remaster announcement, CD Projekt Red revealed Songs of the Past, a new paid expansion set for release in 2027 across all platforms. Unlike the free remaster, this is genuinely new content, sending Geralt to the previously unseen region of Letten, described as "a seemingly idyllic land that hides a dark secret beneath its peaceful surface."
The expansion adds new enemies and a new chain weapon for Geralt to use, and it's being co-developed with Fool's Theory, a studio staffed by veterans who previously worked on The Witcher 3 itself. That pedigree alone has fans cautiously optimistic that Songs of the Past will feel like a natural continuation of the base game's design philosophy rather than a bolted-on afterthought.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has already sold tens of millions of copies and cemented its place as one of the defining RPGs of its era, and this remaster looks like CD Projekt Red's way of making sure a new generation of players on Switch 2 and current consoles experiences it the way it was always meant to be seen. With Songs of the Past already confirmed for 2027, this isn't the last we'll hear from White Orchard and beyond. Will you be diving back into the Northern Realms when the remaster drops? Come talk about it in the NerdBlocks forum.
