The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered arrives with a huge free upgrade for existing owners
More than a decade after its original release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting another major refresh. CD Projekt Red has announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, a new version of the acclaimed open-world RPG that brings a wide range of visual, gameplay, performance, and quality-of-life improvements.
The best part for longtime fans is that the remaster will be available as a free upgrade for players who already own the game. Even better, existing owners will also receive the two beloved expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, at no additional cost. New buyers of the remastered edition will get both expansions included as well.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is scheduled to launch on September 29, giving players another reason to return to the Continent while waiting for the upcoming Songs of the Past DLC, which is expected next year.
CD Projekt Red highlighted a broad set of improvements during its announcement. The remaster is designed to make the game feel more modern while preserving the dark fantasy atmosphere, rich storytelling, and monster-hunting adventure that made the original one of the most celebrated RPGs ever released.
Players can expect upgraded visuals across the world, including improved textures, reworked foliage shading, better lighting, a new shading model, enhanced HDR, improved tone mapping, and subsurface scattering for more realistic character and environment rendering. The remaster will also include ray tracing improvements, global lighting upgrades, path tracing on PC, ray reconstruction on PC, ray-traced hair, GTAO, native DX12 support, and rendering parallelization for better performance.
The game will also support the latest upscaling technologies, including Nvidia DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0. These additions should help players achieve smoother frame rates and sharper image quality on modern hardware.
Gameplay is also getting meaningful attention. Movement has been improved, animations have been refined, monster behavior has been updated, and mount handling has been adjusted to make traveling across the Continent feel better. Combat will benefit from new finishers, improved sign visual effects, and a revamped skill tree that could give returning players new ways to build Geralt.
Quality-of-life changes are another major focus. The remaster will introduce improved quest tracking, a looting rework, modernized tutorials, smoother menu navigation, and user interface improvements. Photo mode is also being expanded, giving players more tools to capture the game’s landscapes, characters, monsters, and cinematic moments.
Additional features include immersive meditation, refreshed motion blur, cross-platform mod support, and new accessibility options. The remaster will also bring platform-specific enhancements such as PS5 Pro support, Xbox Play Anywhere support, and exclusive features for Nintendo Switch 2.
With these upgrades, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered looks like more than a simple visual update. It appears to be a full modernization effort aimed at making one of the greatest RPGs of all time feel fresh for both returning fans and first-time players.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered launches September 29 as a free upgrade for current owners, complete with Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine included. For anyone who has been waiting for the right time to revisit Geralt’s journey, this may be the perfect opportunity.
