The Witcher 3 is getting overhauled, again. A remastered version is dropping on September 29, bringing major reworks to everything from graphics to horse riding. Oh, and it’s free for everyone who already owns the base game. And it’s coming to Switch 2.
Revealed during Gamescom ONL 2026, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered will arrive 11 and a half years after the original game with upgraded visuals, enhanced combat, improved traversal and movement, new witcher sign visual effects, revamped mount handling, enhanced monster behaviors, a revamped skill tree, transmogrification, and expanded photo mode, new finishers, and a ton more.
A peek at the expanded list of new features includes mentions of reworked looting, refined animations, better quest tracking, foliage shading reworks, and improved menu navigation. And I’m way too excited for all of it.
This feels like the third time now that we’ll have seen major improvements to the 2015 GOTY open-world RPG. The first time was the 12 months after the game was released in which CDPR kept addressing bugs, UI issues, and gameplay complaints to make a game that felt in certain subtle ways almost unrecognizable. The second time was the 2022 next-gen upgrade for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the enhancements for which were ported to PC as well.
It’s kind of wild, but very cool, that we’re now getting an even better version of one of an all-time masterpiece. And unlike some publishers, CDPR isn’t charging long-time fans for the opportunity to delve into all of these improvements. The remaster will be free for those who already own the game and the existing expansions will be packaged in.
Plus, it’s coming to Switch 2. The Switch 1 port of the game, while a valiant and impressive effort, was pretty ugly and busted. If CDPR can work the same magic it did getting Cyberpunk 2077 running on Nintendo’s new hardware, Switch 2 owners are in for a real treat, especially if they had already purchased the Switch 1 version or have never had the chance to play the game before.