Witcher 3 remastered is out today, free, with a rebuilt skill tree

The Witcher 3 is back, and owners pay nothing

CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered today, September 29, 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native Nintendo Switch 2 version alongside. For everyone who already owns the game on one of those platforms it is a free upgrade, and the patch notes run to more than ninety changes.

For a game released in 2015, that is an unusual offer. Studios usually charge for a remaster of this size, and this one arrives at no cost for owners, expansions included.

We have not played the Remastered build ourselves yet, so this is a read of CD Projekt Red’s own patch notes plus early press coverage, not a verdict. Our full opinion of the underlying game has not moved: The Witcher 3 is a 5 out of 5.

What actually looks different

The visual work is the headline. CD Projekt Red says it rebuilt the shading model, moved the game to native DirectX 12 with multithreaded rendering, and updated textures and models using assets from the Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, a fan modding effort that has now been folded into the official game. Lighting got new image-based lighting and reworked bloom, skin uses subsurface scattering, and there are ray-traced local shadows and a new ambient occlusion option.

On PC, that goes up to path tracing, with NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 and Ray Reconstruction, AMD FSR 4 on RX 7000 cards and newer, Intel XeSS 2.0 and Ray-Traced HairWorks. On PlayStation 5 there is a ray tracing mode targeting 60 FPS and a performance mode that targets 60 FPS, up to 90 on a VRR display. PS5 Pro gets PSSR upscaling and uncapped frame rates.

The Switch 2 is the surprise. The original Switch version ran at a very low resolution, and the German outlet 4Players, which tested the PC and Switch 2 builds, reports 720p in handheld and 1080p docked at up to 40 FPS. It also mentions longer loading and some aliasing. Read that as one reviewer’s finding, not a spec sheet, but it is a real step up for anyone who plays on the couch with a toddler asleep on their shoulder.

The skill tree is the real change

The most important change for anyone who has played before is not graphical. Skills are now organised into a tree, each skill has three ranks, and unlocking new ones requires the prerequisite skills rather than a fixed number of points. Bonuses, effects and synergies were rebalanced, and your skill points are reset.

That last part matters. If you load an old save expecting your finished build, you will find an empty skill screen. It is a good excuse to try a different playstyle, and a mild annoyance if you were 40 hours into a carefully planned alchemy build.

Combat also gets attention: monsters have new behaviours, attack patterns and counterattacks, Geralt has new jumping, climbing and finisher animations, and there is a quick-disengage move, hold dodge then sprint, for leaving a fight you are losing. 4Players calls the combat iterative rather than revolutionary, which is a fair reading of a rebalanced 2015 system.

Quality-of-life fixes that matter with kids in the house

The small changes are where a busy dad will feel this most.

• Meditation now uses a timelapse instead of a menu screen.
• Nearby loot is grouped into one window, with a loot feed on the left of the screen and item tooltips.
• You can collect loot without dismounting Roach.
• The map holds more markers and separates tracked from untracked quests.
• A new Reforge system lets master craftsmen change how gear looks without touching its stats, and dyes from Blood and Wine carry over.
• Photo mode gains placeable characters, props, weather and time-of-day controls and a first-person camera.

Anyone who has abandoned a save because they came back after three weeks and could not remember what they were doing will care about the map and marker work more than about path tracing.

The accessibility preset is built for tired parents

The line that stood out to us is a new preset called Bard’s Ballad, available on the Just the Story difficulty. It bundles options that reduce cognitive load: boosted vitality regeneration, infinite breath, unlimited item durability, unlimited boat durability, ignoring item weight, faster boats and a toggle for Witcher Sense.

That reads like a description of playing a huge RPG in forty-minute windows. It is also an honest admission that the original’s bookkeeping, weight limits, repair kits and boat management, cost time some players do not have. We will test whether it removes friction or removes the game. The Witcher 3 is at its best when a quest makes you choose, not when you are counting weight, so we are cautiously in favour.

Switch 2, mods and what is still coming

Switch 2 players get four control styles: handheld, Pro Controller, dual grip with motion controls, and a mouse-sensor mode. Motion controls cover consumables, signs, the crossbow, bombs and horse actions, and menus, dialogue, the map, Gwent and photo mode support touch. Joy-Con 2 HD rumble, VRR in handheld and HDR are listed too. If you own the original Switch version, the Switch 2 upgrade is free too, and so is the Remastered.

Cross-platform mod support through mod.io is built into the main menu, and CD Projekt Red improved its REDkit tools for modders. The Remastered also adds Ukrainian text and Xbox Play Anywhere, and DualSense haptics on PC.

New story content is a separate matter. A paid expansion, Songs of the Past, arrives in 2027 and is set in Letten, described as an idyllic rural land with a dark secret. Buying it through Blizzard’s Battle.net unlocks a Geralt-inspired skin in Diablo 4.

Is it worth going back?

If you own the game, install the update and decide later. It costs nothing, so the only price is the download and the hours it takes from your evenings. If you never finished it, this is the best moment to start: the Remastered ships with both expansions, and Blood and Wine alone is roughly a second campaign. If you have only played the older games, our Witcher saga guide explains why you can start here.

The one firm warning: this is an M-rated game, and our age guide explains what that means in practice. Blood, violence, nudity, sexual content and strong language are all still there, so this is not a shared-screen game while the kids are up. If you want a similar epic RPG scale to compare, our Cyberpunk 2077 review covers what the studio built next.

For readers who never bought it, the Complete Edition on PS5 includes the base game and both expansions, and the Remastered upgrade should apply to that version. PlayStation 5 owners get the ray tracing mode on the base console and PSSR on the Pro.

When did The Witcher 3 Remastered come out?

It released on September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native version for Nintendo Switch 2 and a Battle.net release on the same day.

Is The Witcher 3 Remastered a free upgrade?

Yes. CD Projekt Red calls it a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms (PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S), and it includes both expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.

Do I lose my saves or my skill points?

Skill points are reset because the skill system was rebuilt into a tree with three ranks per skill. You get them back to spend again, so plan a respec rather than expecting your old build to carry over.

Is The Witcher 3 Remastered suitable for kids?

No. The original is rated M for blood, violence, nudity, sexual content and strong language, and the Remastered does not change the content. It is a game for after bedtime.

Is there new story content?

Not in the Remastered itself. A paid expansion, Songs of the Past, set in a new region called Letten, is planned for 2027.