The Witcher 3 Remastered Lands Free on September 29

There is a very short list of eleven-year-old games that people still argue about in the present tense, and The Witcher 3 is at the top of it. CD Projekt Red used its Gamescom Opening Night Live slot on August 25, 2026 to announce The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, arriving September 29. The headline is not the remaster itself. It is the price, which is zero, and the two expansions the studio handed out the moment the announcement went live.

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered launches September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2
• It is a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms, including GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S
• Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now free for all current owners of the base game
• A third expansion, Songs of the Past, arrives in 2027 as paid DLC, co-developed with Fool's Theory

What the Remaster Actually Changes

This is not a resolution bump with a new logo. CD Projekt Red's list runs to gameplay systems: reworked combat, improved traversal and movement, revamped mount handling for Roach, enhanced monster behaviours, a skill tree revamp, new witcher sign effects, new finishers, transmogrification, and an expanded photo mode.

On the rendering side, PC players get modern graphics technologies including path tracing and DLSS 4.5. Path tracing on a game with The Witcher 3's art direction is a genuinely different experience — Velen's swamps and Toussaint's vineyards were lit for an engine two generations older than the one that will now be tracing every bounce.

Transmogrification deserves its own mention, purely because the community has been asking for it since 2015. Being able to keep the armour stats you need while looking like you did not roll a natural one on fashion is, historically, one of the most requested quality-of-life features in the entire genre.

Which Platforms Get the Free Upgrade?

Owners on GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S receive Remastered at no additional cost. Nintendo Switch owners can claim the native Switch 2 version free when they upgrade to Nintendo's newer console — a nice touch, given the Switch port's reputation as a small technical miracle in its own right. CD Projekt Red is also bringing the game to Battle.net through a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment.

The expansions are the sleeper detail. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, both of which review better than most standalone RPGs, are now free for everyone who owns the base game. Blood and Wine in particular is roughly a full game's worth of content. If you bought The Witcher 3 in a sale years ago and never went back, you now own considerably more of it than you did on Monday.

What Is Songs of the Past?

The genuinely new thing. Songs of the Past is a third expansion launching in 2027 as paid DLC on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2, co-developed with Fool's Theory. It takes players to Letten, described by the studio as an idyllic land of rural tradition hiding a dark secret beneath the surface — which, for anyone who has played a Witcher expansion before, is roughly the most Witcher sentence ever written.

It introduces a new weapon type, a chain, and enemies that have not appeared in the series before. Fool's Theory is a studio staffed partly by former CD Projekt Red developers, so the collaboration is less of a leap than it looks.

Where This Sits in CD Projekt Red's Plans

The studio has been scaling up for a while — we covered The Witcher 4 reaching nearly 500 developers earlier this year. Giving the previous game a substantial free overhaul while the next one is in full production is a confident move, and a good way to keep a very large audience warm.

It also lands in a strong year for the format generally, alongside releases like Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2. More of our coverage is on the gaming page.

September 29 is five weeks out. Between now and then, there are two expansions sitting in your library that you did not have to pay for.

Sources: CD PROJEKT RED Press Center — August 25, 2026; Game Informer — August 25, 2026.