The Witcher 3 Remastered Launched Free on September 29, With Songs of the Past Coming in 2027

Published 1 September 2026. Words like "tonight" or "next week" refer to that date.

The Witcher 3 just got its biggest surprise announcement in over a decade. CD Projekt Red used Gamescom to reveal that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered would release on September 29, 2026, and the whole upgrade is free.

"Well, that escalated quickly," is honestly the only way to describe it. I went into Gamescom only expecting a trailer for Songs of the Past, but CD Projekt Red gave a week of Red streams plus an at-home showcase with new 4K material covering both the expansion and the remaster in detail. This almost never happens in the industry anymore, and getting a full remaster of my favorite game ever made is genuinely mind blowing.

The Witcher 3 Remastered Launched Free on September 29, 2026

Every other publisher would probably have turned this into a fifteen to twenty dollar upgrade, but CD Projekt Red made it a free upgrade for anybody who owns the game on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch. If you own a physical copy of the original Switch version, you will be able to get the fully upgraded Switch 2 edition as well.

Then they took it a step further.

Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine Are Now Free Too

You will still have to pay for Songs of the Past, but Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, two of the greatest expansions ever made in this medium, are now free for every single person who owns The Witcher 3. If you have not played both of them yet, go play them. "They're so peak."

This is proof that CD Projekt Red gets it. I am sick and tired of people bringing up the Cyberpunk 2077 launch every time the company does something good. They have been redeemed a thousand times over at this point.

A Returning Collaborator Co-Developed the Remaster, Plus a Native Switch 2 Version

The remaster is being co-developed with a studio that has already worked with CD Projekt Red before, on Phantom Liberty and on The Witcher 3 Complete Edition. I had mentioned a while back that this studio was working with CD Projekt Red in some form, and at the time I assumed it was tied to the console mod update, but it turns out it was for the remaster as well. Since the remaster is free if you already own the game, this cannot be some outsourced cash grab, and since this studio has developed on The Witcher 3 before, I trust them fully.

The platform list is where things get interesting. The remaster is launching on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S, and for the first time ever, The Witcher 3 is getting a native Nintendo Switch 2 version. I beat The Witcher 3 on the original Switch, base game and both expansions, potato textures and low frame rate included, and it was fine at the time, but it is finally getting the upgrade it needed. It is also launching on Battle.net, and there is a collaboration where playing Diablo 4, I believe, gets you Witcher 3 inspired skins.

Combat, Roach, and the Skill Tree Get a Full Rework

This is not just a resolution bump. Geralt's combat animations have been rebuilt to smooth out attacks and transitions between targets, so closing the gap on an enemy is faster and more polished. New finishers are being added, including an execution using the Aard sign shown in the reveal trailer. There is a new adaptive combat camera that pulls in tight for small skirmishes and pulls back for larger groups so you can actually see what you are swinging at.

Roach is getting a handling overhaul, monster behavior is being updated, and the Witcher signs are getting brand new visual effects. The skill tree is being completely rebuilt with new perks and abilities alongside reworked existing skills, and CD Projekt Red is changing how builds come together so there is more freedom in what you unlock and combine. Think of it as a Cyberpunk 2.0 style update but for The Witcher 3, which is exactly what I wanted if we were ever going to get a combat overhaul.

Transmog, Photo Mode, and Other Quality of Life Additions

Transmog is finally being added, meaning you can run the stats you want while looking however you want. If there is a set of gear you love visually with a great aesthetic, you can now swap in better stats without giving up the look. Photo mode is also being expanded with new poses, camera controls, frames, filters, and character models.

Beyond combat, there is new quest tracking, a reworked looting system, a modernized tutorial, refreshed motion blur, and extensive new accessibility features. There is also a new immersive meditation that shows world time actually lapsing around you instead of fading to a black screen. CD Projekt Red has not shown the new quest tracking and looting system yet, as far as I could tell, though I could be wrong, and they may just be holding a few things back to show closer to launch.

Cross-Platform Mods and a PC Version That Reads Like a Tech Demo

Cross platform mod support is finally happening, and Series X and S are specifically confirmed for mods, including quests, weapons, equipment, and balance changes, running through mod.io. We do not know the full details yet, but there have been issues before with how strict PlayStation was about mods on games like Fallout. That has since been updated, so perhaps The Witcher 3 will launch on PlayStation without similar issues.

The PC version reads like a tech demo. Full path tracing is confirmed, going well beyond the selective ray traced effects in the current generation version, with ray reconstructed hair replacing Nvidia HairWorks, and support for DLSS 4.5, FSR 4, and XeSS 2.0. It is running natively on DX12, so older Windows versions will not work. The lighting system is being rebuilt with a new shading model, a global lighting rework, improved ray tracing, GTAO ambient occlusion, and subsurface scattering, alongside upgraded environment, NPC, and monster textures. The legendary modder Halk Hogan PL was actually brought on to work with CD Projekt Red on the remaster, and rather than shutting his work down the way another company might, CD Projekt Red gave him a role and folded his work into the base game. Foliage is getting its own separate shading rework, there is an HDR improvement with a new tone mapper, PS5 Pro support includes a 90 FPS option, and the game will be Xbox Play Anywhere, so buying it on Xbox also gets you the Windows PC and handheld versions.

Songs of the Past Takes Geralt to the Region of Letten

CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory showed roughly thirteen to fifteen minutes of new gameplay across the Red streams. Songs of the Past takes Geralt to Letten, located in northeastern Redania, a region that escaped most of the continent's warfare. The countryside draws inspiration from real world locations, including southern Poland, and what has been shown includes lakeside villages, forests, farmland, and rural festivals, all centered around the Dil Lettenhove family estate.

The expansion is roughly the size of Blood and Wine and fully open world, so you can explore at your own pace without the main story constantly pushing you forward. CD Projekt Red has packed settlements more densely and given NPCs more detailed routines and dialogue than before. The demo showed shepherds moving sheep across roads and carts rolling through towns, and the world looked genuinely alive.

The Opening Quest Sends Geralt Searching for a Missing Dandelion

The opening quest is called A Bed of Thorns. Geralt is in Letten for the Belleteyn celebrations, wakes up hungover, and finds that Dandelion is nowhere to be seen, with the bard's missing belongings the first sign something went wrong. Geralt heads to the Dil Lettenhove estate for a family meal and meets Dandelion's relatives, including his grandmother, his cousin Lila, and his more serious brother Gustav.

The trail leads them to the Garden of Thorns and the story of Count Humbert de Lettenhove, an ancestor tied to an old family curse. The Garden of Thorns looks cinematic, and it is nighttime Letten where the location really shows its beauty. Daytime Letten looks like a postcard, but nighttime is where the expansion really shines.

A New Companion, an Optional Romance, and the Chain Weapon

Lila becomes Geralt's main companion through the story, and she is a new romance option, with CD Projekt Red confirming that romance is optional. During the demo, the developer playing deliberately picked the colder dialogue option to keep Geralt loyal to Yennefer. CD Projekt Red has not said whether Yennefer or Triss physically appear in the expansion, but cameos have been confirmed, so it is possible.

Geralt's new chain weapon is the big headline here, paying homage to the original Witcher cinematic trailer. It fills the crossbow slot, so you have to choose one or the other at times. You can throw it fast or take time to aim, it drags ranged enemies toward Geralt like a "get over here" move, it can rip creatures out of groups for crowd control, and it breaks through defenses that swords cannot get past.

New Enemies, Unconfirmed Extras, and My Guess at a Release Date

The enemy variety looks strong. One new enemy type is fairly humanoid and shields itself with a swarm that comes at you, there is a creature called the Thorn Bloom, and one called the Slumbering Knight. CD Projekt Red has confirmed there are more bosses and monsters still unrevealed. Every combat and animation improvement from the remaster carries over into the expansion, and the story itself is roughly eleven years old, dating back to the original Witcher 3 development, so this is clearly something the team has wanted to do for a long time.

There are further details I have seen floating around that are not fully confirmed. There is allegedly twenty new Gwent cards, with four already revealed, and the Northern Realms and Skellige factions are getting new additions. There is a boss called Guardian of the Well, and new unique mutagens. Some other stuff has actually been confirmed, though: enemies sitting around level forty, a Swarm Mother, and yes, you can pet dogs.

CD Projekt Red has not confirmed a release month, price, or anything beyond a commitment to 2027 for Songs of the Past. My prediction is May 2027. The Witcher 3 launched in May 2015 and Blood and Wine launched in May 2016, so Songs of the Past will most likely follow that pattern, though it could get pushed back to September or October instead.

Are you looking forward to Songs of the Past and the free remaster?