Witcher 3 Remastered Launches Free Tomorrow With Switch 2 Rebuild

CD Projekt Red's free Witcher 3 Remastered arrives September 29 across PC, PS5, Xbox and a native Switch 2 build, with mods coming to consoles.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launches September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, and it is completely free for anyone who already owns the game. According to VGC, the update file sizes are 45GB on PC, PS5 and Xbox and 50GB on Switch 2, where the remaster is a separate eShop listing. Nintendo Life reports the actual Switch 2 pre-install measures about 48.5GB and that owners of physical copies can claim the free upgrade on launch day. New buyers pay £45.99/$59.99 on Switch 2, per Nintendo Life, and GamesRadar+ notes the global launch is simultaneous at 10am UTC — 3am PDT, 6am EDT, 11am BST, 12pm CEST and 8pm AEST — with no VPN or clock tricks able to unlock it early.

The striking part is that the Switch 2 build ships as a day-one platform alongside PC, PlayStation and Xbox rather than a delayed follow-up port. shattered.io reports this is the first time CD Projekt Red has treated a Switch release of the game as a simultaneous launch, and that the remaster is built natively for the new hardware rather than ported the 2019 Saber Interactive Switch 1 build forward — a port infamous for its sub-720p handheld resolution and heavily compressed assets. The remaster also folds in both expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, at no extra cost for existing owners, a deliberate contrast to publishers charging $10 to $40 for visual refreshes. Green Man Gaming reports a new paid expansion, Songs of the Past, follows separately in 2027.

According to Green Man Gaming, the remaster touches nearly every system: rebuilt lighting and materials based on the Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, ray tracing plus PC path tracing with DLSS 4.5, FSR 4 and XeSS 2.0, reworked combat animations with an adaptive camera, polished non-boss monster behaviour, revised Roach handling with one-press canter and gallop, and loot pickup from the saddle. The skill tree is rebuilt as a prerequisite-based tree with three ranks per skill, so skill points are refunded and settings reset on update. metro.co.uk lists CD Projekt's official patch notes confirming upgraded visuals, combat, mount handling and transmogrification.

Reassurance matters for a game people routinely sink 100-plus hours into. GameLuster reports CD Projekt Red's Marcin Momot confirmed the 45GB PS5 update overwrites the existing Complete Edition and that save data and Trophy data carry straight over, with no Platinum progress lost. Green Man Gaming adds that cross-progression continues and achievements stay unlocked — the only real reset is your build, since the new skill tree refunds points and settings revert to defaults, so a manual save and a screenshot of your build beforehand is wise. On the mod front, PC players keep Nexus Mods and REDkit workflows, while PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players get the free mod.io browser after linking a CD Projekt Red account; Switch 2 is not included in cross-platform mod support. Heavily modded PC installs should check compatibility before loading an important save.

Giving the remaster away to millions of existing owners is a business play as much as a goodwill gesture. shattered.io frames it as sustained marketing ahead of The Witcher 4: every player who claims the free upgrade and replays 100 hours of Geralt's story becomes a warmer prospective buyer for the sequel, and the game stays visible in storefront charts eleven years after launch. There is a hardware angle for Nintendo too — a marquee, well-reviewed RPG free for existing owners gives fence-sitting Switch 1 owners a concrete reason to buy Switch 2 now. It also lands in a crowded Switch 2 port season that shattered.io says already includes Diablo 4's Age of Hatred Collection and a Metal Gear Solid 4 remaster confirmed at 60fps by Digital Foundry testing.

After launch day, the roadmap continues. According to Green Man Gaming, Songs of the Past is a paid third expansion planned for 2027 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2, sending Geralt and Dandelion to the bard's homeland of Letten and adding new monsters, mutagens and a chain weapon. metro.co.uk frames it as the step that tees up The Witcher 4, which it says is expected in 2028. Before then, players should clear roughly 45GB (50GB on Switch 2), check the new PC baseline — per Metro, a minimum of a Ryzen 5 2600 or Core i5-8400 with a GTX 1660, 12GB RAM and 70GB SSD on Windows 11 — and make a manual save. PC owners who cannot run it can revert to version 4.04 or the classic 1.32 branch.