The Witcher 3 Remastered is launching September 29, 2026, CD Projekt Red confirmed during the gamescom Opening Night Live show. An announcement trailer for The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered revealed a slew of upgrades to visuals, performance, and gameplay, and the free upgrade for existing owners of The Witcher 3 arrives alongside the first gameplay trailer for Songs of the Past, a newly detailed paid expansion, and a surprise partnership bringing the decade-old RPG to Battle.net for the first time. Coming a decade after the original 2015 release, the announcement doubles as a reminder of just how long CD Projekt Red has continued supporting one of its flagship games, even as attention shifts toward The Witcher 4. Here is everything confirmed about the Witcher 3 Remastered launch, what changes, and what's coming next.
Per CD Projekt Red's official announcement, giving fans their first look, Witcher 3 Remastered brings upgraded visuals, enhanced combat, improved traversal and movement, new Witcher signs effects, revamped mount handling, enhanced monster behaviors, a skill tree revamp, transmogrification, an expanded photo mode, and new finishers. The remaster covers the entire epic adventure, meaning both the base game and its existing content benefit from the overhaul rather than just select story missions. The remaster is a free upgrade for existing Witcher 3 owners on qualifying platforms, and it will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. For the first time, a native version of the game is also launching on Nintendo Switch 2, and current owners of the Witcher can access the two existing expansions at no additional cost, with pre-orders already open across supported storefronts.
CD Projekt Red's minimum specs are a Ryzen 5 2600 or Core i5-8400 CPU, a GTX 1660 or RX 5500 XT with 6GB VRAM, 12GB RAM, and 70GB SSD storage on 64-bit Windows 11. The remaster requires DirectX 12 and SSD storage, dropping DirectX 11 and hard drive support.
Yes, but not the newest one. All current owners of The Witcher gained free access to the two critically acclaimed expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, the same day the remaster was announced, ahead of Remastered's September launch. Songs of the Past, the brand-new third expansion, is a separate paid purchase available to wishlist now ahead of its 2027 release.
Yes, CD Projekt Red confirms existing save files remain compatible with Witcher 3 Remastered. Achievements and trophies, including those tied to Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, carry over unaffected, so players can pick up an old save and continue directly into the remastered version without restarting.
Yes, CD Projekt Red confirms Cross Progression continues to function in Witcher 3 Remastered just as it did before. Saved games sync across supported platforms once cross-progression is enabled, letting players move between PC, console, and the new Nintendo Switch 2 and Battle.net versions without losing progress.
Per Game Informer, the Gamescom trailer gave fans their first actual gameplay look at Songs of the Past, showing women dancing in flower crowns during a Midsommar-style festival, lush swamplands at sunset, and a mysterious tree creature calling out to Geralt with the line "Come, sword bearer, bane of beasts. Delve into darkness and see the truth of Letten's beauty." The expansion takes players to the brand new region of Letten, also described in official materials as the brand new realm of Letten, an idyllic land of rural tradition CD Projekt Red describes as "rich in rural tradition and folklore," where people enjoy bountiful harvests and lavish festivals on the surface while a dark secret lurks beneath. Geralt must face never-before-seen foes, reunite with old friends, and overcome long-dormant evil as the story unfolds through choices carrying meaningful consequences. Songs of the Past launches at a later date in 2027, and the trailer closes with Geralt wielding a new chain-like weapon, which CD Projekt Red level design lead Miles Tost confirmed on stage is a weapon that first appeared in the intro of the original 2007 Witcher game, now usable to pull enemies in for an instant beheading.
CD Projekt Red is co-developing Songs of the Past with Fool's Theory, a Polish studio led by Witcher 3 veterans with a proven track record and also known for The Thaumaturge and Seven: The Days Long Gone. Remastered itself is being co-developed with Yigsoft, a Hungarian studio that previously worked on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition.
In a new partnership announced alongside the remaster, CD Projekt Red is bringing Witcher 3 Remastered and Songs of the Past to Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net platform, one of two new platforms confirmed for the game and marking the first time it has been available there. Per Blizzard's own announcement, the Battle.net version launches September 29 alongside every other platform, includes both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, and is available to pre-purchase now. Players who pre-purchase or later buy Songs of the Past on Blizzard's platform will also unlock a Geralt-inspired cosmetic skin in Diablo IV, with further details on the crossover promised at BlizzCon this September and on CD Projekt Red's own game blog.
CD Projekt Red described the partnership as the start of a broader relationship between the two studios, framed around a shared focus on immersive worlds and memorable RPGs. Bringing The Witcher 3 to Battle.net gives CD Projekt Red access to Blizzard's existing PC storefront audience, while the Diablo IV skin gives Blizzard players a direct incentive to try Geralt's world for the first time.
Witcher 3 Remastered launches September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Battle.net. Notably, the original Nintendo Switch is not included in CD Projekt Red's messaging around the remaster, suggesting the older hardware won't receive this particular upgrade. As with the native version of Remastered, Songs of the Past follows in 2027 on the same platform lineup as a paid expansion. CD Projekt Red is hosting guided presentations of both the remaster and the expansion throughout Gamescom in Hall 8.1 of the entertainment area, with additional special REDstreams presentations on YouTube and Twitch covering specific areas of Songs of the Past and Remastered in more depth. Free access to the two expansions was announced on stage by Opening Night Live host Geoff Keighley himself, adding a memorable moment to the broadcast.
The Witcher 3 news arrived during an especially busy stretch for CD Projekt Red. The same week, the studio confirmed The Witcher 4, featuring a playable Ciri, is targeting a 2028 release. With this remastered version of Witcher 3 and the new expansion Songs of the Past bridging the gap between now and The Witcher 4's launch, CD Projekt Red appears to be treating its flagship RPG's tenth-plus anniversary as an ongoing platform rather than a closed chapter, keeping the nearly decade-old game relevant across a growing list of storefronts and hardware. More details on the remastered upgrade continue to be shared on the game's official website and social channels.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has won more than 250 Game of the Year awards and sold more than 65 million copies since its original 2015 release, making it one of the best-selling and most acclaimed RPGs ever made. Players take on the role of Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer known as a witcher, searching for his adopted daughter Ciri, the Child of Prophecy, across a war-torn open world filled with bloodthirsty monsters, dark curses, and destiny-defining choices. With Remastered offering what CD Projekt Red calls the most polished and immersive version of Geralt's adventure to date, and Songs of the Past adding meaningful new content for the first time in years, the free upgrade gives both longtime fans and newcomers on Switch 2 or Battle.net a strong reason to return to the Northern Kingdoms well before The Witcher 4 arrives in 2028.
Alex Castellari · Editor
Editor
