CD Projekt shares full Witcher Remastered upgrade list

CD Projekt has published the official list of improvements in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, covering visuals, combat, quality of life, and more. The free witcher remastered update launches September 29, 2026 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, with download sizes around 45–50 GB.

Key Takeaways

• CD Projekt released an official Remastered improvements list across visual, combat, quality-of-life, and miscellaneous categories ahead of the September 29, 2026 launch.
• Existing owners get the update for free on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2; base-game owners also receive Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
• Download sizes are about 45 GB on PC, PS5, and Xbox, and about 50 GB on Switch 2.
• Highlights include path tracing on PC, a rebuilt skill tree, refreshed Signs, transmog, mod.io support, and the Bard’s Ballad accessibility option.
• Review embargoes lift September 28, a day before the update unlocks worldwide.

More than a decade after Geralt’s open-world breakthrough, CD Projekt is framing Remastered as the biggest single wave of changes The Witcher 3 has ever received at once. The studio says the overhaul touches exploration and combat especially hard, including a fully rebuilt skill tree aimed at both newcomers and veterans.

For players who still treat the 2015 classic as a comfort replay, this sits neatly in our Nostalgia: Then & Now lane: same Continent, sharper tools, and a free path back in.

What does the official Witcher Remastered upgrade list include?

According to IGN’s report of CD Projekt’s media brief, improvements fall into four buckets.

Visual upgrades cover improved textures for environments, NPCs, and monsters; major foliage work; and reworked lighting, rendering, and ray tracing. PC players get path tracing as an exclusive feature. On PS5 Pro, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) is positioned to deliver a smooth 60 fps with ray tracing on.

Combat changes are equally headline-worthy. The skill system has been reimagined with new abilities and deeper build flexibility. Animations, finishers, and an adaptive camera aim to make fights more kinetic. All five Signs — Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen, and Axii — get new visual effects, while enemy behavior for encounters such as wolves and drowners is more reactive.

Quality-of-life work includes overhauled Geralt and Roach animations, a reworked Witcher Senses system that reveals clues when you focus on the right elements, a refreshed UI with clearer quest and tutorial notifications, and transmogrification so gear can change looks without losing stats.

Miscellaneous additions round it out: an expanded photo mode; mod.io cross-platform mod support for quests, gear, balance tweaks, and more; and Bard’s Ballad, an accessibility feature for players with cognitive limitations such as attention deficits or cognitive fatigue, including options like automatic self-healing.

On Nintendo Switch 2, CD Projekt also highlighted motion controls for casting Signs, firing the crossbow, throwing bombs, drinking potions, and controlling Roach, plus gyro aiming, mouse mode, and touchscreen map, menu, and Gwent support.

How big is the free Witcher Remastered update, and when does it unlock?

CD Projekt RED Global Community and Social Media Director Marcin Momot shared download sizes that leave little room for a half-empty SSD: roughly 45 GB on Steam (language packs can change that), 45 GB on PS5, 45 GB on Xbox, and about 50 GB on Nintendo Switch 2 as a separate product.

GAMINGbible reported the installed footprint may grow by up to about 30 GB (from around 50 GB toward 80 GB). That outlet also said the remaster visuals can be toggled, similar to the earlier next-gen upgrade, and that PC players who skip the download can still play but will miss features such as the reworked spells.

Global unlock is September 29, 2026. Sample times include 3 AM PDT in Los Angeles, 6 AM EDT in Boston, 11 AM BST in London, 12 PM CEST in Warsaw, 6 PM CST in Beijing, and 7 PM JST in Tokyo. Review embargoes lift a day earlier on September 28 on a matching regional schedule.

Owners on qualifying platforms upgrade for free. Players who own the base game also get Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine at no extra cost, after CD Projekt moved the title toward Complete Edition content for everyone.

Why does this Remastered drop matter for returning players now?

CD Projekt told media that gaming has changed a lot since the original launch, and that while prior updates already brought next-gen console support, Remastered is the first release of its kind for The Witcher 3 — packing extensive changes across the whole game rather than a single systems patch.

That timing is strategic. Remastered is arriving as CD Projekt also develops Songs of the Past, described as The Witcher 3’s last story expansion and a bridge toward The Witcher 4, which MP1st notes is targeting a 2028 release. GAMINGbible places Songs of the Past in early 2027 and frames Remastered as a visual and systems foundation for that send-off.

For nostalgia-minded fans, the pitch is simple: keep the story that made the series a landmark, then modernize how it looks, plays, and accommodates different players — from photo mode and transmog to mods on more platforms and accessibility options that were never part of the 2015 package.

If you plan to jump back in on day one, clear the space first, check your region’s unlock hour, and skim the official improvement categories so you know whether you are chasing path-traced vistas, the new skill tree, or Switch 2 motion controls. The Continent is familiar. The toolkit around Geralt is not.