Witcher 3 Remastered Release Date: Free Upgrade Explained

Release date and where it's free

CD PROJEKT RED announced the Witcher 3 Remastered release date at gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25 (announcement) and launched it on September 29, the same day on every platform below.

Where it's available, Remastered replaces the Complete Edition and includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine as standard. That matters for anyone who only ever bought the base game: the expansions are yours now too, and CD PROJEKT RED had already made them free to every owner back on August 25.

Screenshot: Steam store page (CD PROJEKT RED)

What actually changed

CD PROJEKT RED co-developed Remastered with Yigsoft, the Hungarian studio that already worked on the Complete Edition. The headline changes:

• A reimagined skill system. Abilities are rebalanced and the skill tree is overhauled, so expect to rethink an old build.
• Combat and movement. New finishers, reworked animations, an adaptive camera, and new animations for Geralt and Roach, including vaulting and ladder climbing.
• Visuals. Better environment, NPC and monster textures, more foliage, reworked lighting and ray tracing, and path tracing on PC.
• PS5 Pro support. PSSR targets 60 frames per second with ray tracing on; a performance mode goes up to 90 with VRR.
• Mods on consoles. Mod.io is now built in, with cross-platform mods.
• Switch 2 controls. Motion controls for the crossbow, bombs, signs and potions, gyro aiming, mouse control, and touch for the map, menus and Gwent.
• Smaller additions announced at gamescom: transmogrification, an expanded photo mode and revamped mount handling.

For a sense of how much Remastered asks of a PC: Steam lists a minimum of Windows 11, a Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600, 12 GB of RAM, a GTX 1660 or RX 5500 XT 8GB with 6 GB of VRAM, and 60 GB on an SSD.

GODEEPER: Waiting for something new in the same dark-fantasy space? Our verdict on the other big RPG of the season. The Blood of Dawnwalker Review →

Screenshot: Steam store page (CD PROJEKT RED)

Patches since launch

Patch 5.01 is out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. It fixes boats that could start moving on their own and ignore terrain collisions, dodges that responded late, and sprint-dodging that drained all of Geralt's Stamina, and it turns Dynamic Resolution Scaling off by default on PC. Consoles gained Bloom, Light Shafts and Depth of Field toggles. The Switch 2 version got its own 5.01 on October 19.

On Steam, the game sits at 96% positive across 248,541 English reviews. That figure covers the 2015 game and all its versions, not Remastered alone, so treat it as a verdict on The Witcher 3 itself.

What the launch trailer shows

We stepped through CD PROJEKT RED's two-minute launch trailer. At 0:25 the text reads "NOW REMASTERED FOR A NEW ONE"; at 0:45 "MODERNIZED SYSTEMS AND TECH" sits over a bear in a sunlit pine forest; at 0:55 a "BLOOD AND WINE" expansion tag appears over a clawed monster. At 1:25 Triss, Ciri, Geralt and Yennefer stand together on a ship, and the end card at 1:55 says "FREE UPGRADE" and "AVAILABLE NOW." It's a highlights reel of the 2015 story, so use the screenshots and the patch notes, not the trailer, to judge what changed.

What's next: Songs of the Past

Remastered is the run-up to a third expansion. Songs of the Past arrives in 2027 as a paid expansion on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2, co-developed with Fool's Theory. It's set in a new region, Letten, and gives Geralt a new weapon, the chain. No release date or price has been announced. Buying it on Battle.net unlocks a Geralt-inspired skin in Diablo 4.

If you only ever played the base game, Remastered hands you Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine before Songs of the Past arrives. For something very different to sink this winter into, see our Valheim Ashlands guide, or check the Steam sale calendar if you'd rather wait for a discount.

How we checked this

On October 28, 2026 we read CD PROJEKT RED's two press releases (August 25 announcement, September 29 launch), the Patch 5.01 notes on thewitcher.com, the official launch trailer (frames every ten seconds), and the Steam store page and appdetails data for app 292030 (US store) for price, requirements and reviews. We haven't played Remastered for this piece; it isn't a review.

References

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered Available Now!, CD PROJEKT RED Press Center
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered Announced, Songs of the Past Gets First Look, CD PROJEKT RED Press Center
3. Patch 5.01 for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is live!, CD PROJEKT RED
4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered on Steam, Steam
5. The Witcher 3 official site, CD PROJEKT RED