CD Projekt Red has revealed The Witcher 3 Remastered, promising a massive tech refresh at no additional cost to existing owners of the RPG. There’s a dizzying selection of gameplay and graphics upgrades coming to the game, with the PC version bringing the 2015 classic up to speed with all modern creature comforts we’d expect from a 2026 release.
Announced during the Gamescom Opening Night Live show, the remaster will arrive on September 29. This newer, shinier version of The Witcher 3 will cover the base game and both existing expansion packs, the latter of which CD Projekt Red has now made available for free. That’s a whole lot of monster hunting and Gwent to get through before the Songs of the Past expansion arrives in 2027.
There’s a dragon’s hoard of visual improvements, but path tracing undoubtedly ranks among the biggest, alongside support for the latest graphics tech suites from AMD, Nvidia, and Intel. The Witcher 3 already supports upscaling and frame generation in its current form, but we’re glad to see an explicit shift to DLSS 4.5, FSR 4, and XeSS 2. Curiously, while DLSS Ray Reconstruction receives a specific callout in the trailer’s changelog, there’s no sign of AMD Ray Regeneration.
We can also expect general improvements to ray tracing, including a new RT Hair option, in addition to a global lighting rework and a new shading model that should help these effects pop all the more. This comes on top of other niceties, including updated textures, refreshed motion blur, refined animations, GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion), subsurface scattering, and more.
I’m also excited to see the game’s HDR improvements in action, particularly with a new tone mapper in play. Combine this with all the other improvements, and I’m sure The Witcher 3 Remastered’s visual splendour will handily rival many modern releases. It really is a shame that CD Projekt Red is making the swap to Unreal Engine 5 with The Witcher, 4 when its own tech clearly has so much more to give.
As much as I love The Witcher 3, I can admit there’s room to improve how the game feels to play. Thankfully, this remaster also promises ‘enhanced combat’ as well as changes to traversal and movement, both on foot and horseback. We can also expect better quest tracking, menu navigations, and looting, plus an all-round more intuitive interface.
I’ll be playing The Witcher 3 Remastered for free, as a long-time owner of the original game, but those new to the title can pick it up from Steam, GOG, and Battle.net for £50. You can also pick up this remastering effort on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles.
