CD Projekt Red used the closing minutes of Gamescom Opening Night Live to unveil a remaster of The Witcher 3 — and anyone who already owns the game pays nothing for it.
The upgraded edition is due September 29 and bundles in both of the expansions previously released for the game. Current owners are upgraded free of charge, and that courtesy extends to Nintendo hardware: buy the game on the original Switch and the Switch 2 upgrade won’t cost you anything either.
The changes go deeper than new lighting
The visual overhaul you’d anticipate from a remaster is there, sure. But CDPR also dug into the game’s underlying systems.
The skill tree has been reworked. Combat has been reworked too, with adjustments to the camera and targeting alongside a batch of new finishers. Getting around as Geralt is meant to feel smoother, and mount handling has been tweaked as well.
That last item is the one I’m wary of. Roach’s buggy comedy is practically load-bearing at this stage, and it would be a minor tragedy if the studio ironed out every last one of those quirks.
A decade-old game is still getting new content
CDPR revealed earlier this year that a third piece of DLC, called Songs of the Past, is heading to The Witcher 3 next year. A brief gameplay teaser followed the remaster reveal at Gamescom as a kind of post-script.
Bolting an expansion onto a title that’s more than 10 years old isn’t a common move. Then again, the franchise’s next proper sequel isn’t expected until 2028 at the earliest, so treat this as the bone being thrown.
And work is still underway on a modern remake of the first Witcher game, if you’d care to rewind even further.