The Witcher 3 Remastered announced: Release date, 12 new features and biggest upgrades

CD Projekt Red has officially announced The Witcher 3 Remastered, which will launch as a free upgrade for existing owners on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 29.

The announcement came during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, where the developer revealed a host of new features alongside significant visual improvements coming to the remastered edition.

The Witcher 3 Remastered announced for September 29 with major upgrades

The original Switch version will not receive a separate upgrade. Instead, CD Projekt Red will release a native Nintendo Switch 2 version, which existing Switch 1 owners will be able to upgrade to for free. The remastered edition will also arrive on PC through Battle.net for the first time, with players gaining access to a Geralt-inspired skin for Diablo 4.

Both the remastered edition and the current version of The Witcher 3 will include the game's first two expansions at no extra cost. The update arrives ahead of Songs of the Past, the third expansion, which is scheduled for release in 2027.

The Witcher 3 Remastered: What’s new?

The remastered version brings several gameplay and visual enhancements. These include refined combat, improved movement and traversal, revamped horse mechanics, enhanced monster AI, an updated skill tree, armour transmog and an expanded photo mode. Players can also expect new finishers and several other gameplay refinements.

CD Projekt Red is also adding long-requested cross-platform mod support, along with improved quest tracking, immersive meditation, updated animations, UI enhancements and a revamped looting system.

On the visual side, the game will feature improvements to motion blur, accessibility options, HDR, foliage shading, ray tracing, global lighting and the overall shading system. The remaster will also introduce subsurface scattering and a new tone mapper.

PC players will receive support for Nvidia DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4 and Intel XeSS 2.0, alongside path tracing, ray reconstruction, native DirectX 12 support and rendering parallelisation. Ray-traced hair is also among the visual upgrades.

The remaster will support PlayStation 5 Pro, while Xbox players will get Xbox Play Anywhere support. CD Projekt Red also teased unspecified Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive features.

Meanwhile, the studio did not reveal anything new about The Witcher 4 during the event. The Ciri-led sequel is currently targeting a 2028 release, with development still underway.

"Our team here at CD Projekt Red HQ is hard at work on a brand new saga, one with Ciri at the helm," CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said previously. "We have more than 500 incredibly talented developers working to create something truly special for you. The Witcher 4 features a huge and immersive open world, intense and action-packed gameplay, and a deep, impactful story that we hope will stay with you for a long time. Simply put, this is our biggest, boldest, and most ambitious game to date.

"Now I know you're eager to learn when it's coming. That's the question we're hearing from you all the time. So while we're not showing The Witcher 4 at the event, and we're not ready to share an exact date, I can tell you this: The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release window.

"I know it's a bit of a wait and you'd love to play it sooner, but let the team cook. It will be worth the wait. Until then, there will be plenty more of The Witcher to come, including Songs of the Past when it launches in 2027. And you can be sure gamescom is also in our plans for the coming years."

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