Everything we know about The Witcher 3 Remastered: Release date, changes, free content, and more

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt already received its PS5 and Xbox Series X|S overhaul in 2022, but CD Projekt Red is going back again. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered releases this September with changes to combat, movement, Roach, skills, quests, looting, mods, menus, accessibility, and much of the game’s rendering technology. Existing owners on supported platforms get the upgrade for free. CD Projekt Red announced Remastered during gamescom Opening Night Live alongside Songs of the Past, the new paid expansion coming in 2027. The update also turns Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine into free content for everyone who owns the base game, giving returning players both previous expansions before the remaster itself comes out. Quick Summary The Witcher 3 Remastered releases Sept. 29, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2, with Battle.net joining the PC storefronts. The upgrade is free for existing owners on supported platforms. Combat, movement, Roach handling, monster behavior, Witcher Signs, the skill tree, photo mode, quest tracking, looting, menus, animations, and accessibility are all being changed or expanded. PC gets path tracing, Ray Reconstruction, ray-traced hair, DLSS 4.5, FSR 4, XeSS 2.0, native DirectX 12, and rendering parallelization. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now included with the base game at no additional cost, and existing saves remain compatible. Table of contentsThe Witcher 3 Remastered release date and platformsCombat and movement are being reworkedThe skill tree is being rebuiltQuest tracking, looting, meditation, and menus are changingCross-platform mods are comingThe graphics update detailsPath tracing and new upscalersPS5 Pro and Xbox Play Anywhere supportHearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now freeFAQs The Witcher 3 Remastered release date and platforms The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered releases on Sept. 29, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store remain the PC storefronts, while the game also makes its Battle.net debut on the same date through a new partnership between CD Projekt Red and Blizzard. Existing owners receive Remastered as a free upgrade on qualifying current-generation platforms. Original Nintendo Switch owners can also claim the native Switch 2 edition for free once it releases, including owners of physical Switch copies. The Switch 2 edition is a separate download, so it will have its own Home menu icon and will not patch the original Switch installation. It requires an estimated 43.4GB and HDR output, and refresh rates up to 120Hz on compatible displays, although CD Projekt Red has not announced its actual frame-rate modes yet. Combat and movement are being reworked Let’s slay the griffin again. Image via CDPR Geralt’s combat animations have been redone to make attacks and movement between targets smoother, including faster transitions when closing distance. New finishers are being added as well, with the reveal trailer showing an execution with the Aard sign. An adaptive combat camera will change its distance depending on the encounter, as smaller fights can use a tighter view, while battles against larger groups pull the camera farther back so more enemies remain visible. General movement and traversal are also being refined, while Roach receives another handling overhaul. Monster behavior is being updated, and Witcher Signs are getting new visual effects, so combat changes extend to both Geralt and the enemies around him. Refined animations and refreshed motion blur are also confirmed. The skill tree is being rebuilt Remastered redesigns The Witcher 3’s skill trees and character progression with new perks and abilities alongside reworked existing skills. CD Projekt Red is also changing how builds are assembled, with more flexibility in which abilities Geralt can unlock and combine. Transmog is finally coming to the game, allowing Geralt to use the stats of one piece of equipment while keeping the appearance of another. The expanded photo mode adds new poses, camera controls, frames, filters, and character models. Quest tracking, looting, meditation, and menus are changing Sail to Skellige. Image via CDPR New quest tracking and a reworked looting system are both coming with Remastered. CD Projekt Red has not yet shown exactly how either system works, but considering that the devs are not against integrating useful community content, it could be done through the two most popular mods. The tutorial is also being modernized, which should change how new players are introduced to combat, Signs, alchemy, and the rest of Geralt’s systems. New accessibility features are confirmed as well, although the individual options have not been revealed yet. Immersive meditation is another new feature shown in the trailer. Judging by the trailer, it will show the time-lapse of the world around instead of fading to black. Cross-platform mods are coming Cross-platform mod support will bring user-created content beyond PC. Xbox Series X|S is specifically confirmed to support mods including quests, weapons, equipment, and balance changes, while CD Projekt Red has not yet detailed exactly how distribution and moderation will work across every supported platform. Bringing mods to consoles could make Remastered considerably more extensible than the 2022 version, which incorporated selected community mods directly into the game but did not offer a mod browser. The graphics update details More beautiful than ever. Image via CDPR Environment, NPC, and monster textures are being updated, while foliage receives a separate shading rework. HDR is being improved too, along with the tone mapper responsible for translating the game’s lighting and color information to the final image. The lighting system is being rebuilt with a new shading model, a global lighting rework, improved ray tracing, GTAO ambient occlusion, and subsurface scattering. Subsurface scattering changes how light behaves when passing through materials such as skin, while GTAO improves the contact shadows around objects and environmental geometry. Ray-traced hair is also confirmed. While the current next-gen version already supports several ray-traced effects on capable hardware, Remastered is revisiting those systems alongside its changes to global illumination, shadows, and shading. Path tracing and new upscalers New lighting and shading. Image via CDPR The PC version will support full path tracing, going beyond the selective ray-traced effects available in the current version. Path tracing calculates a much larger portion of a scene’s lighting through ray tracing and will sit at the top end of Remastered’s graphical settings. Ray Reconstruction is coming to PC as well, using Nvidia’s neural reconstruction technology to replace traditional denoisers in ray-traced scenes. Nvidia DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0 are all confirmed, giving modern GPUs updated reconstruction and scaling options. Native DirectX 12 and rendering parallelization are two final changes to the PC renderer. CD Projekt Red has not published new system requirements or performance targets yet, so we don’t know how demanding path tracing will be or what hardware will be recommended for the highest settings. PS5 Pro and Xbox Play Anywhere support PS5 Pro support is confirmed for Remastered, although resolution, performance, and ray-tracing modes have not been announced. Xbox Play Anywhere support lets digital Xbox owners access the game across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PCs, and compatible Xbox handhelds using the same purchase and save progression. Xbox Series X|S also gets the newly announced mod support. Nintendo Switch 2 has additional exclusive features beyond the free upgrade from the original Switch edition. Touch-screen support is already confirmed, together with HDR and 120Hz output support on compatible displays, but CD Projekt Red has not revealed the full list of Switch 2-specific additions yet. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now free Two massive DLCs, free. Image via CDPR Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now included with every copy of The Witcher 3, including accounts that previously owned only the base game. Existing owners do not need to wait for Remastered on Sept. 29 to access them. Players who already bought either expansion keep it in their libraries, while its content is also incorporated into the base game. Existing saves remain compatible, cross-progression continues to work, achievements and trophies are unaffected, and both expansions can still be started separately from the main menu. Xbox One owners receive the expansions as well, even though Remastered itself is limited to newer hardware. Digital owners get them automatically, while disc owners can claim them from the Xbox Store. FAQs When does The Witcher 3 Remastered come out? The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered releases Sept. 29, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. Is The Witcher 3 Remastered free? Yes and no. Existing owners of the game will receive Remastered as a free upgrade, but it will still be a paid game that replaces the old version for those who don’t own it. Are Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine free? Yes. Both expansions are now included with the base game at no additional cost, including for players who previously owned The Witcher 3 without either expansion. Dot Esports is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy