The Witcher 3 Remastered Launches September 29 — and Geralt Is Getting One Last Expansion

Geralt has apparently discovered the one contract no witcher can refuse: coming back again.

CD Projekt Red used Gamescom Opening Night Live to put a date on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered. The overhaul launches September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native Nintendo Switch 2 version arriving the same day. For existing owners on qualifying platforms, the remaster is a free upgrade.

That would have been a decent announcement on its own. CDPR also confirmed that anyone who already owns The Witcher 3 now gets Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine at no additional cost, and it showed the first proper look at Songs of the Past, the new paid expansion coming in 2027.

Eleven years after launch, The Witcher 3 is somehow back in the middle of CD Projekt Red’s release calendar.

CDPR Is Reworking Combat, Movement and Progression

Calling this a remaster undersells how much CDPR says it is changing.

The studio’s official list includes upgraded visuals and performance, improved traversal and general movement, revamped horse handling, new Witcher Sign effects, smarter monster behavior, transmogrification, an expanded photo mode and new finishers. The skill tree is also being reworked rather than simply carried over untouched.

Xbox Wire, in a post written by CD Projekt Red PR manager Marta Piwońska, adds more detail. Combat animations have been revised so Geralt can close distance more smoothly, the camera now adapts to the number of enemies around him, and the progression system has been redesigned with new perks and abilities alongside reworked existing skills.

That is a bigger job than sharpening textures and raising the frame rate.

The Witcher 3 still plays well, but some of its age shows in exactly these areas. Geralt’s movement can feel heavier than modern action RPGs, Roach has never been famous for elegant pathfinding, and the old skill system contains plenty of upgrades that are difficult to get excited about. A remaster that actually touches those systems has a better reason to exist than one built entirely around prettier sunsets in Velen.

CDPR is also adding cross-platform mod support on Xbox Series X|S and expanding photo mode with new poses, camera controls, frames, filters and models. Xbox players will get Play Anywhere support as well.

The Free Upgrade Has One Important Qualification

CD Projekt Red describes Remastered as a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms. That wording is worth keeping intact.

The confirmed September 29 launch platforms are PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. CDPR has also announced a Battle.net version through a new partnership with Blizzard Entertainment.

What the company has not done in its main announcement is turn every possible ownership scenario into one universal promise. Platform-specific rules can differ, especially when discs, old-generation versions and a new Nintendo system are involved.

On Xbox, Microsoft has already been more specific: Xbox Series X|S owners receive Remastered for free, while owners of the base game — including Xbox One players — can claim Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine without paying extra.

The simple point is that current Witcher 3 owners now have access to the two expansions that helped turn it into one of the most celebrated RPG packages ever made, at no additional cost.

And if you somehow bought The Witcher 3 eleven years ago and never played Blood and Wine, there are worse problems to have.

Songs of the Past Sends Geralt to Letten

The stranger part of this comeback is that Remastered is really the warm-up.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past launches in 2027 as a paid expansion on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. It is being co-developed by CD Projekt Red and Fool’s Theory, the Polish studio also working with CDPR on The Witcher Remake.

Geralt travels to Letten, a new region described as an idyllic land of harvests, festivals and rural tradition. Naturally, something terrible is hiding underneath all of that.

CDPR’s press material calls Letten the homeland of Dandelion. Xbox Wire adds that Geralt accompanies his old friend there over a personal matter before discovering the problem lurking beneath the region’s peaceful surface.

The expansion introduces new enemies, new abilities and a new weapon: the chain. Long-time Witcher players may recognize the idea from the opening cinematic of the original game. In Songs of the Past, it becomes an actual combat tool, with CDPR highlighting its usefulness for crowd control.

New mutagens are also coming, although the studio has not yet laid out the full progression system for the expansion.

Is This Really Geralt’s Final Witcher 3 Story?

CD Projekt Red is choosing its language carefully, but it is not being subtle.

Its official Press Center describes Songs of the Past as Geralt returning to the Path for “one last adventure” and calls the expansion the final chapter of The Witcher 3.

That does not mean CDPR has sworn never to use Geralt again in any game, cameo or future project. It does mean the studio is positioning this as the ending of The Witcher 3 itself.

CDPR is simultaneously sending Geralt back out for one more contract while preparing Ciri to take over the main series in The Witcher 4. The company has already said that The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release window, which makes the current plan a fairly clean handoff: Geralt in 2027, Ciri after that.

Fool’s Theory being involved adds another wrinkle. The studio is co-developing Songs of the Past while also working on the remake of the first Witcher. A new Geralt expansion gives that team a chance to work inside CDPR’s most successful Witcher game before rebuilding the one that started the series.

Battle.net and Switch 2 Make This a Wider Relaunch

Remastered is also taking The Witcher 3 somewhere it has never been before.

A native Nintendo Switch 2 edition launches September 29, while CD Projekt Red’s Blizzard partnership brings the game to Battle.net. Players who buy Songs of the Past through Battle.net will eventually receive a Geralt-inspired skin in Diablo IV, with more details promised around BlizzCon.

It is easy to dismiss new storefronts as business housekeeping, but paired with a new console version, free legacy expansions and a substantial mechanical overhaul, this starts to look more like a relaunch than routine maintenance.

That is the commercial logic behind a paid expansion arriving next year.

The studio is effectively rebuilding the runway before Geralt’s last Witcher 3 story arrives. Anyone who skipped the game, bounced off the old combat or never touched the expansions gets a cleaner point of entry. Existing players get a reason to reinstall it without buying the same game again.

For a title that has sold more than 65 million copies, that is a remarkably aggressive second life.

September Comes First

There are still plenty of details CD Projekt Red has not given us. Songs of the Past has no exact 2027 release date or price, and we have only started seeing how much the redesigned combat and progression systems change the feel of the base game.

More of that should come out of Gamescom and CDPR’s REDstreams. Red Reactions is also tracking the wider show in our Gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live coverage.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered launches September 29, 2026. Songs of the Past follows in 2027.

Geralt was supposed to have retired to a vineyard. Apparently the Continent had other plans.