Witcher 3 Remastered Arrives September 29 as a Free Upgrade for All Owners

Priya Anand26/08/20264 min read

CD Projekt Red confirmed at gamescom’s Opening Night Live that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered launches September 29, 2026, as a free upgrade for every existing owner on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The studio also announced that the game’s two prior expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, are free to all current owners starting immediately, well ahead of the remaster itself.

The news landed alongside the first proper look at Songs of the Past, the long-rumoured third expansion that CD Projekt Red is positioning as a bridge to The Witcher 4. Between the free content drop and a decade-old RPG getting a genuine gameplay overhaul, this was one of the bigger surprises of gamescom 2026.

Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone Free From Today

As an additional surprise for players, all current owners of The Witcher 3 gained access to its original two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, for free the moment the announcement went live on stage. On Xbox specifically, players who only own the base game will receive both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions for free, including on Xbox One, with digital owners getting the expansions automatically added to their library while disc-based players can claim them from the Store.

That’s roughly 60 to 70 hours of some of the best expansion content the RPG genre has produced, handed over with zero purchase required. We think giving away Blood and Wine outright, rather than bundling it as a pre-order incentive, is the right call if the goal is genuinely getting lapsed players back into the game before Songs of the Past arrives.

What the Remaster Actually Changes

This isn’t a simple resolution bump. CD Projekt Red says Remastered brings a slew of upgrades and enhancements to visuals, performance, gameplay, and more when it launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Per the developer’s own rundown, that includes enhanced combat, improved traversal and mount handling, an expanded skill tree, armor transmog, a broader photo mode and new finishing moves, alongside cross-platform mod support and accessibility features.

Notably, the improvements apply to both the base game and the pre-existing expansions Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone, and will carry over into Songs of the Past too. So this is a foundational overhaul the whole game sits on going forward, not a one-off cosmetic patch.

Switch 2 Gets a Native Version, Battle.net Joins the Party

The remaster is also expanding The Witcher 3’s platform footprint. The Witcher 3 is coming to two brand new platforms: a native version of Remastered will be released on Nintendo Switch 2, and through a new partnership between CD Projekt Red and Blizzard Entertainment, Battle.net, both on September 29.

If you already bought The Witcher 3 on the original Switch, you’re covered too: owners of The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch will be able to claim Remastered on Nintendo Switch 2 when it releases. That matters for anyone who picked up the Switch port specifically for portable play. A native Switch 2 build, rather than a cloud-streamed version, is the difference between an actual handheld Witcher 3 and a compromise.

We’d flag one asterisk though: several outlets covering the reveal noted that Songs of the Past itself is currently slated for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2, but not the original Switch hardware, so families juggling an older console and a new one should check which version their save data lives on before the DLC lands.

Songs of the Past Heads to Letten in 2027

The expansion itself, Songs of the Past, still doesn’t have a firm release date beyond 2027. CD Projekt Red says it will take players to the brand new realm of Letten, an idyllic land of rural tradition that hides a dark secret just below the surface. Geoff Keighley hosted the reveal on stage as part of Opening Night Live.

Scale-wise, comparisons to Blood and Wine keep coming up. Songs of the Past was first announced in May of this year, teasing to bridge the gap between The Witcher 3 and The Witcher 4 with an experience similar in size to that of Blood and Wine. Blood and Wine itself ran to 30 to 40 hours of content, so expectations for Songs of the Past are set fairly high.

The timing lines up with The Witcher 4 news that broke just days before gamescom. The Witcher IV, starring Geralt’s daughter Ciri, will launch in 2028. Songs of the Past reads less like a farewell DLC and more like scene-setting for that sequel, which fits the studio’s stated ambition of tying the two games together narratively.

Mark September 29 down. That’s when the free Remastered upgrade goes live across PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 and Battle.net, more than a year ahead of the Songs of the Past expansion it’s built to support.