Doug Cockle (of The Witcher fame) apparently recorded all of Geralt of Rivia's voice lines in only 8 days while working on the very first game in the series, and he landed a home run without ever being able to read the original source material.

Geralt's husky voice will forever be defined by Doug Cockle's performance, but the iconic role wasn't easy to get right. Speaking to Gameology, the actor remembered he simply "went to an audition" back in the day and met a developer from CD Projekt Red who described the character of Geralt.

Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher novels hadn't yet been translated into English, meaning Cockle "couldn't refer to them" when preparing to jump into the recording booth. Still, he was immediately on board.

"What I really liked about the concept of The Witcher when I was introduced to it was just this whole new fantasy world. I've always been a fan of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Dragonriders of Pern, all those great fantasy novels - Conan the Barbarian. So, I've always always loved fantasy worlds, and this was a whole new one to explore," he explains.

When it came to actually recording the huge role-playing game, Cockle recalls he spent about eight days in total for The Witcher 1: "I think it was five days in a row and the voice was very low - very, very low in my register. And at the end of a long recording day - we were recording six, seven hours a day - my voice was wrecked. So I would go back to my hotel room and I would just sip peppermint tea all night, or lemon and ginger. Those are my two favorites. And then I'd go back the next day and do it all again. And then the game came out and people loved it." The rest is history.

Doug Cockle is confirmed to reprise his role when The Witcher 4 finally comes out, which is targeting a tentative 2028 release window. Developer CD Projekt Red recently said Geralt will "always have an important" role in the series, even when he's not actively in the spotlight.

The Witcher 3 Remastered's new patch has fans convinced they're playing a different RPG altogether with how "massively improved" its visuals are

• With a reworked skill tree and stunning new visuals, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is the definitive way to play the RPG in 2026.

To answer the question I've seen all over the Internet: yes, The Witcher 3 Remastered really is that good. When I first learned of the remaster's existence at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026, I admit I was a little dubious. We'd gotten a snazzy update back in 2022 when the complete edition launched on current gen hardware, and after more My Chemical Romance album re-releases than I can count, I had to ask myself if The Witcher 3 really needed another facelift.

Well, here's your confirmation that the remaster is absolutely worth it. Not only is it absolutely free for all owners of the base game, this gorgeous update improves visual fidelity (lighting, colors, the works) as well as combat, Signs, and the notoriously complicated skill tree that has confounded many of us for years. There's a reason the GamesRadar+ RPG Club chose it for this month's topic; The Witcher 3 is still the best RPG of all time, and a total must-play in 2026.

Why play it today?

• The Witcher 3 Remastered's combat reworks make Sign and bomb-based builds noticeably more powerful and dynamic.

The combat enhancements are what I'm loving most about the new Witcher 3 remaster. I've always been an Igni diehard, but this is the first time I have built my entire character around both it and Yrden.

The remaster doesn't add all-new skills or alternate Sign forms, necessarily, but has reworked how strong each Sign is in tandem with both your current level and any other active abilities. The Firestream form of Igni, which releases a torrent of fire instead of a single short blast, feels even stronger now with the Melt Armor ability activated alongside it, while it has never been more satisfying to watch Supercharged Glyphs whittle enemy health down when they stand on a Yrden Sign.

The reworked skill tree makes it easier to understand how damage scaling works by removing the tedium and guesswork of the original version's "spend X to get Y" machinations. I never used to pay attention to how the different armor sets adapted to my playstyle, but I can feel the difference now depending on my gear; Sign damage output is noticeably bolstered when wearing the School of the Griffin armor, while activating some of the Manticore School genes alongside it means each of my bombs packs a devastating wallop. I love pairing Igni and Yrden with my beloved Grapeshot, a bomb that literally explodes some enemies in a single hit!

The combined effect makes for a meatier, more thoughtful combat system that has me being more inventive with my Signs and bombs rather than desperately hunting down swords all the time... Though I'm still partial to a pretty blade, especially now that we can transmog weapons in The Witcher 3.

Time commitment:

As is custom for the best open world RPGs, a typical playthrough of The Witcher 3 Remastered will take anywhere from 80 to 140+ hours to complete depending upon your playstyle and whether you have both DLCs. My first playthrough took around 135 hours, encompassing the base game, Hearts of Stone, and Blood and Wine, and I definitely left some stones unturned.

A true completionist run might take you a good 10-20 hours or more on top of that, especially if you love a bit of Gwent and the racing challenges. But since I am all about the missions, monster contracts, and treasure hunts, I don't tend to bother with the competing elements too much.

Play The Witcher 3 Remastered if you love...

Skip The Witcher 3 Remastered if you want:

One thing to know:

The Witcher 3 Remastered is a little bit buggy for some, with performance issues on PC causing some bizarre asset dropout (check out them bug eyes). Developer CDPR is on the case, however, with one hotfix already rolled out and another exclusively patching settings toggles for Series S players. I've not experienced anything game-breaking myself in over 50 hours of play so far (aside from the decade-old one where Geralt stubbornly refuses to dive underwater sometimes and I need to save and reload) so it's still worth checking the update out for yourself if you already have it on a current get console.

A moment you'll remember:

Finding Henry Cavill's Geralt armor set from The Witcher Netflix TV show in a Level 15 mission called In The Eternal Fire's Shadow. Added to the game in 2022, the (relatively) new secondary quest sees Geralt exploring an abandoned mine where plague victims were locked up and left to die some three hundred years prior. It's now haunted by the miserable spirits of those left to rot, making for some truly spine-chilling moments that feel even more frightening in the remaster edition's reworked fidelity, and features one of the toughest bosses in the whole game: The ghost of a fellow School of the Wolf witcher.

The final verdict:

11 years since The Witcher 3 took the world by storm, the Remastered Edition makes it feel brand new. In our The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered review, we even call it "an exceptional update that refines the rough edges to make a great RPG even better." It's easy to see why so many of us are still enamored with it to its day, with a heady blend of weighty narrative choices and malleable, exciting combat dynamics that make each player's Geralt feel entirely their own. I don't think I'll be able to pull myself away from The Path anytime soon, and at this rate, I'd be happy to call The Witcher 3 my game of the year all over again in 2026.

So, where can you play it?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is out now on Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. You can buy it new here, though current owners of the Complete Edition can simply download the update for free on current gen consoles.

Check out how I ranked the 7 best Witcher games, and yes, I included Gwent in there.

If there's one thing the GamesRadar+ RPG Club has taught me, it's that you've never seen it all. Just when you think you know an RPG inside out, it goes ahead and surprises you 10 years later. See, I thought I'd experienced every original side quest and monster contract in The Witcher 3 – given my many, many playthroughs – but the remastered re-release turned out to prove me wrong. On the shores of Skellige, after completing a particular contract at a particular time, a series of rather unfortunate events landed me in a pokey prison. Having no recollection of getting caught up in this mess before, I had no idea how I was going to get the White Wolf out of this one.

But the very fact that I couldn't wait to find out, and felt fresh excitement in an adventure I've spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours with, speaks to the magic of CD Projekt Red's sweeping fantasy adventure. It's not only teeming with things to see, do, and discover, but it directly reacts to the order in which you do things, and a decision to complete a contract at a certain time made me stumble my way into a missable quest that now refuses to leave my mind.

Quest Log

Wraiths and fog

It all begins with the haunting of a lighthouse out on one of the far islets of Skellige. The contract, The Phantom of Eldberg, is pretty standard for an experienced Witcher like me: investigate the area and find out why wraiths are attached to the location. It's all going well, having found the person responsible for tying the ghostly apparitions to the lighthouse. With a trophy in hand, I return back to a quaint little tavern to get my payment from a local called Jorund.

Only, the tavern is housing some hostile patrons who are none too happy at my being there, and with civil tensions at their peak with the passing of the king, things take a drastic turn. Before I know it, I'm in a bout of fistcuffs that quickly evolves into a clashing of blades. Poor Jorund pays the ultimate price, and as a stranger in a strange land, I'm quickly hoisted into a prison in the compound of Madman Lugos. What a day for poor Geralt.

I'd done this contract before, but it'd never ended like this. On previous runs, I handed in my wraith trophy and Jorund sat happily in the tavern, living to see another day. But, as I discovered, it's all about when you do this contract. Completing it before you do the King's Gambit kicks off a missable quest chain that I had apparently always managed to skip… probably due to my affinity for the Possession quest, or because I'd simply never picked up the contract early enough.

Regardless of the reason, I love the fact that The Witcher 3 constantly takes stock of what I choose you to do, and when I choose to do it. It puts real tangible weight behind my decisions in this world – something I live for in RPGs. And on this occasion, the game rewards me with a wild quest called The Cave of Dreams. If you've experienced this before, you know what I'm in for, but by all of the howling winds does it feel extra magical to witness it through the lens of the remastered edition's enhanced graphics.

Naturally there will be spoilers ahead for the Cave of Dreams.

Face your fears

Indebted to Lugos for letting me out of my pokey prison, I'm tasked with helping out his son, Blueboy Lugos, who's ventured to a cave with some companions to overcome a challenge of legend. Tales tell that anyone who enters the cave will face their fears, which are brought on by taking a mixture of hallucinogenic herbs before you delve into its depths. I'm already drawn to the concept, eager to see what the often implacable monster slayer Geralt's innermost fears will conjure.

At once, things start to get surreal. The cave comes alive with a giant, glittering razorback whale swimming through the air above the heads of the White Wolf, Blueboy, and his crew. It's a sight to behold, as are the school of fish that decorate the cave roof further in. Damn. It sure does look incredibly pretty. Pure camera mode fodder.

The events that actually unfold during the quest are what make it so memorable, though. Through every section of the cave, a character's fear comes to life. For warrior Uve Jabberjaw, it's the deceased king. Having previously insulted the monarch, Uve drastically cut out his own tongue as penance, and the past event clearly still haunts him. Then, in a more chilling turn, Blueboy faces his own father, whose anger and disappointment sets him literally aflame.

When I finally reach the scene of Geralt's fear, I stop to take it in: I'm looking at Kaer Morhen covered in a blanket of white snow. The nightmares that have plagued the witcher throughout the story make manifest here, with the imposing figure of Eredin, King of the Wild Hunt, materializing. It hits hard, not because Geralt is afraid of Eredin, but because he fears for the person the king continues to threaten: Ciri. The short confrontation gets to the heart of what makes The Witcher 3's story so memorable. It's about found family, protecting those you love, and never giving up the fight to keep them safe, and it once again reiterates how deeply Geralt cares for his ward.

If I ever needed further proof as to why The Witcher 3 continues to endure as one of the best RPGs going, well, this quest and the way I finally stumbled upon it is further proof. Now, excuse me while I go and see what else awaits me in the Remaster.

As CD Projekt Red continues to grow with projects like The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 in the works, some industry veterans are worrying that it's all becoming a bit too ambitious to make sense financially in the long run.

Mark Darrah, BioWare veteran who was co-director of Dragon Age: Origins and executive producer of Anthem, shares those concerns as part of an interview in the Summer Eternal Anthology (as reported by Rock Paper Shotgun recently).

He first discusses the likes of GTA 6 and how its sheer size has affected the video game industry, with developers and publishers falling into the trap of hoping to make the next Grand Theft Auto.

Should some move away from that dream, the future could be brighter. "If that all goes away, then you'll get a bunch of room to make it work with titles that need to sell 3-4 million units," as Darrah says. Think Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. "That's much more attractive."

And, why wouldn't it be? "I don't want to be working on something like GTA, where if this thing doesn't sell 50 million units, it's going to lose money," after all. "That's insane."

He worries about CD Projekt Red in particular, in this context. Darrah feels the studio is now part of that huge GTA-like game space.

"Their games now need to sell 15, 20 million units to make money," the former dev says. "That's a really dangerous place to be." I suppose he's not wrong there, either. It's never easy to make that much back, even with an IP as big as The Witcher. Plus, it's not a situation one would want to be in, regardless.

I'm not too concerned about CD Projekt Red's success myself, but it does make you wonder.

Heck, the company is currently working on a downright plethora of new games, from The Witcher 4 to Cyberpunk 2 to the ever-mysterious Project Hadar, which has just now moved on from its world-building phase to some prototype testing. There are loads of upcoming CD Projekt Red games, put simply, that much is for certain.

The Witcher 4 dev is "still predominantly using people" over AI in development, says CEO, but "everybody has to make those judgments on their own"

Once again, the GamesRadar+ RPG Club demands blood as we set out to explore standout missions in The Witcher 3 Remastered. Which perhaps makes it all the more appropriate that, when asked to write about my favorite mission in The Witcher 3, my mind immediately went to classically-eccentric side quest "The Oxenfurt Drunk".

Well, actually my first thought went to The Bloody Baron storyline, but everybody writes about the Bloody Baron, and how much is there really left to say about it at this point? But there's a small side quest I love almost as much, partly because it does so much to make me realize the thing I want to see most in Witcher 4.

Quest Log

Shots, shots, crossbow shots!

An optional Witcher Contract found and set in the titular town, The Oxenfurt Drunk has Geralt find the killer behind multiple victims drained of all their blood - gee, I wonder what esoteric horror could be behind this! The twist is he discovers in the wake of a bit of corpse-prodding autopsy that every victim was well over the limit to drive and horse and cart, leading to the realization that this particular vampire has a penchant for blood with a high alcohol content. I won't make the Bloody Mary joke if you don't.

Twenty minutes later, Geralt is drunkenly staggering around crime scenes with a dozen vodkas inside him, trying to lure out the Ripper-Tippler with a series of bawdy tavern songs and a coquettishly exposed neckline. It feels like the kind of atrociously bad idea that a D&D party would come up with, and I mean that as an honest compliment.

So yeah, it's a fun little quest – the Contracts are reliably the best part of Witcher 3, to my mind – but it also shows the one place where I think the game had so much more room to flex. Namely, in all the investigation and intelligence that makes Geralt far more than some burly hired goon.

Research and Bedevilment

If Witcher 4 is going to shake up any part of the formula – or even introduce an optional difficulty mode – as we wave in Ciri as the new hero, my greatest wish would be for something that really gamifies the intellectual side of monster hunting.

As it goes now, the usual pattern is that Geralt finds some yellow glowing tracks and follows them until there's a tuft of fur, a mangled corpse, or a Resident Evil-style lab note. Then he stares at the clues before telling the audience he's deduced that the monster is a Lesser Striped Whifflepog or whatever, at which point the Pokedex entry for the Whifflepog appears in the Bestiary as if summoned by voice command, telling you exactly what tinctures, oils and spells are needed to kick its head in most effectively.

And that's all genuinely fine, but a bit uninvolving, especially for a sequence of events that happens so frequently across the game. Speaking as somebody who loves investigative detective games and piecing clues together, I'd much rather have deduced all these things myself, allowing for the thrill of getting it right, and the potential fear of getting it wrong. Rather than tell me what I'm about to fight, give me the full bestiary from the start, some giant old tome I can flick through between fights or even fill out myself with additional player-written notes, an ever-evolving monster hunter's journal.

Then, when I find the crime scene, I can examine the clues around me and make some educated decisions, without Geralt just blurting the answer like a God of War NPC. Hmm, a nighttime attacker, a city dweller, medium-sized claws, a blood drinker… To the indexed glossary, batman! Now the Bestiary can tell me what's needed to kill a Katakan Vampire, assuming that's actually what it is and I haven't pulled the wrong conclusion from the data.

And at the same time, the unique alcoholism of this particular vamp is something I can consider accordingly as an additional element that wouldn't be in the book, but can be folded into my strategies nonetheless. Maybe I could work out the strategy to wander drunkenly around the town instead of Geralt, or perhaps lace a wine bottle with blood and leave it out in plain view, ideally under a big anvil hanging by a tenuous string.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much, but Baldur's Gate 3 really opened the door for this kind of immersive gameplay, and I don't get the sense that the creators of Cyberpunk 2077 seem very workshy.

The Monster Manual

To me, this deductive skillset is the very thing that makes Geralt a witcher, far more than any silver sword or toxin immunity. It's the space where an off-the-peg burly warrior brute becomes something more, an educated hunter who knows how to exploit weaknesses and analyze nuanced information. And with Ciri being new to The Path in The Witcher 4, her having less experience would facilitate a more involved, methodical research process. Geralt materializes in the series with most of this knowledge memorized, but Ciri is still using reference material.

Witcher 3 was always great at showing off Geralt's intellect, but clearly wasn't comfortable about the idea of gamifying it too hard, perhaps for fear of alienating or confusing the audience. And yes, it is arguably a lot to ask from them. But in a post-Elden Ring world, I don't think people are fearful of having to read between lines or make deductions, and even if not, there'll be a billion online guides to hand if it's all proving too perplexing. So if another Oxenfurt Drunk shows up in Witcher 4, I'll be excited to make that revelation myself – even if I show up prepared to fight half a dozen goblins instead.

There's always value in being an originator, even if what comes after proves more prolific. Doug Cockle is the original English-speaking voice of Geralt of Rivia, stepping into the role for the first The Witcher, and he's revealed that Henry Cavill, who brought the character into live-action on Netflix, actually invited him to the premiere, though it took some proof for him to humor the reach out.

Cockle spoke about the encounter during an interview with Ginx TV. "[Henry] gave me credit for a great performance, and said that my vocal performance as Geralt was influential in his decisions about his own performance," he recalls, before providing a humorous anecdote about the pair meeting properly.

"Henry reached out, three or four weeks before the London premiere of the Netflix, and said, 'Hey Doug, it's Henry here, you want to come to the premiere?'" Cockle remembers. "I didn't believe it was him at first; I kind of told him off, because I get a lot of weird DMs, and I thought this was probably some weirdo, and he sent me a picture!"

Generally, such precautions are good. There are a lot - a lot - of scammers on social media, and one of the most prevalent forms of trying to get in touch is by pretending to be someone famous or influential whom you already follow or potentially interact with.

Stories about people losing quite a lot of money to these crooks are heartbreakingly common. Thankfully, Cavill seems to have understood what was going on, and provided proof. Cockle went to the event, and the two talked a little about the grumpy protagonist and the franchise as a whole.

"We had a lovely chat, I hung out with him and his entourage for the evening," he says. "By entourage, I mean his family." Cavill has since abdicated the role, and Liam Hemsworth's taken over. Cockle is still going strong with Geralt, returning for the Songs of the Past DLC and The Witcher 4. If Hemsworth ever decides to slide into those DMs, he better have a selfie ready.

The Witcher 4 dev is "still predominantly using people" over AI in development, says CEO, but "everybody has to make those judgments on their own"

I recall many things from my 140-hour initial playthrough of The Witcher 3, but taking in the scenery is not one of them. Between monster contracts, heartbreaking questlines like The Bloody Baron, and far too many games of Gwent, the position of the sun in the sky was never of concern to me.

But The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered has put all that on its head. I wanted to hone in on a specific quest for this first instalment of October's RPG Club, exploring how White Orchard's griffin-slaying contract feels with the new combat and reworked skill tree now in play thanks to the new update. So tell me why I've just spent almost five hours treating The Witcher 3 like an open world photo op, seeking out the best sunsets in town?

Quest Log

Heavens above

Aside from all the half-naked bodies (which have always been there in this dream sequence), the first thing I notice upon starting a new save is how jaw-droppingly vivid, colorful, and vibrant it is.

Shadows are richer, the contrast between Geralt's bare chest and the marbled oak furniture behind him starker than Yennefer's state of undress. I walk out onto the balcony and can almost feel the sun's golden warmth pouring over Kaer Morhen, setting aflame the emerald and sage and every other fancy word you can think of to say "green" in its lush surrounding wilderness.

It boggles the mind. I'm playing The Witcher 3 on my six year-old gaming laptop. Yes, I updated my graphics card drivers especially for this occasion, but I was prepared to miss out on the best of the remaster's visual upgrades given the age of my rig. Turns out that even without ray-tracing and occlusive lighting, The Witcher 3 has never looked more magical.

When I'm let loose in White Orchard, I try to stay on track. Well, as on track as you're supposed to be in a game like this; White Orchard is the starter town for a reason, offering a snapshot of the game's many systems and mission types in one handy place as Geralt sets out to find Yennefer with witcher mentor, Vesesmir. Wraith in the Well is a great introduction to the planning that goes into each monster hunt. For a taste of The Continent's political landscape, Twisted Firestarter sees me tracking down an arsonist who burned down the local forge after the blacksmith supplied arms to invading Nilfgaardian forces. Elsewhere, I help a sweet old dear get her prized frying pan back from the home of a dead man. You know, just normal things.

I have to admit that since it has been some time since I last played The Witcher 3, some of the combat enhancements might be lost on me. If anything, I find myself running into more bugs than before – Geralt refused to dive to fetch some herbs once, forcing me to reload, while he petulantly decided that dodging is for losers and massively showed me up in a brawl outside a tavern. But at least I can stop and snap some pretty pictures in Photo Mode when I'm not reloading to fix said bugs.

To griffin-ity

By the time I get around to the griffin-slaying contract, I've reached Level 3 and completed all nearby side quests. It took a bit of time; White Orchard is not for level grinding, since there's a whole game and two DLC (soon to be three when Songs of the Past launches next year) to do that in. But it does mean that I can start exploring the reworked skill tree nice and early – thank god.

I have no shame in admitting that my first Witcher 3 build was utter chaos. I had no idea what I was doing, assigning random mutagens here, mismatching them with other-colored abilities there, never properly upgrading skills after they were first unlocked. But CDPR has made it far more visually intuitive, doing away with the need to blow all your points in a specific category before you can unlock higher-tier skills.

They branch out more naturally now – I'm going for an Igni build at this early stage, since few things can shrug off a bunch of sparks in their faces, which smoothly branches out into the Aard ability tree to let me skip the lower levels outright. It's a far smarter, more user-friendly rework compared to the original – though given how much I struggled with Cyberpunk 2077 at first, maybe I've just gotten used to the developer's flair after all.

Going up against the griffin is easy, if a little daunting. You never feel truly ready in The Witcher 3; some high-level enemies go down surprisingly fast with the right oils rubbed on your silver sword, while others (cough Detlaff cough) give me far more stress than I'd care to rehash here.

It also doesn't help that after fetching herbs and finding the abandoned griffin's lair – RIP griffin wife – all I want to do is take photographs of everything. I'm so consumed with documenting my new Witcher 3 journey like a photojournalist, taking time framing each shot just so, that when Vesemir hands me a crossbow, I panic. Uh, how do I use this again?!

After downing three accidental potions and casting Igni at my horse (sorry Roach), I finally work out how to equip the blasted thing. It's pretty useless, if I'm honest; I'll stick to using the Igni special attack, a stream of continuous fire that reaches a surprising distance, to stun the beast and bring it crashing down to earth for some melee attacks.

It's on toward Vizima now that the brute has been slain, and time to meet Yennefer. But not before I snap another juicy shot of Geralt and his winged prize. I'm sure that there's more I'll appreciate about the remaster update later down the line – I haven't even experienced the new missions that came with the next gen update, after all – but for now, I'm quite happy playing The Witcher 3 in a state of awe and wonder. Each new sunset brings another exciting rush to snap a picture before it's too late, even if Geralt's hair looks startlingly blue or blonde in certain lighting. CD Projekt Red's bold enhancements of The Witcher 3's color palette has turned it into a true fantasy for me, and at this rate, it'll take me a very long time to leave Velen.

So it's just as well that next week, another member of the GamesRadar+ team will take you on an adventure into one of their favorite sections of this big, beautiful game! Until then, I'll see you on The Path.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is impressing fans all over again following CD Projekt Red's new patch targeting the revamped RPG's visuals and more.

In case you missed it, The Witcher 3 Remastered saw the release of patch 5.01 yesterday – an update that does everything from fix boats moving "uncontrollably" to adding Bloom, Light Shafts, and Depth of Field as options to the game's settings on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

You may not think much of those if you're on PC, but console users are practically convinced they're playing something different with how much of a difference there is. The PC tweaks are nothing to scoff at, either.

Over on Reddit, one player explains how they were "worried that the update wouldn't solve my problems with the game," but it turned out better than they thought: "I didn't expect it will look this good."

Comments show fellow fans agree, with an especially amusing reply saying, "Mine is so improved that I've been just slowly moving around on my horse too just taking in the scenery." Valid, honestly.

Other threads elsewhere echo this sentiment, with a side-by-side comparison on Twitter showing how much better The Witcher 3 Remastered looks after patch 5.01.

"CDPR released an update for The Witcher 3 Remastered that massively improves the visuals," it reads. "They fixed the brightness and color tonemapping and the shadows look way punchier now. It honestly looks like a proper remaster now."

The top response is similar: "That's so good!!! The remaster really felt off to me compared to the beautiful contrast of the original game."

Put simply, patch 5.01 is finally putting the "Remastered" in The Witcher 3 Remastered – and retaining the original RPG's beauty to boot. As another post comparing the post-update game states, colors "are now far more accurate to the intended art style" than they were prior to the patch.

And, honestly, I'm in agreement here. Sure, it's already the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic – but there's always room for improvement, and CD Projekt Red knows it.

The Witcher 3 Remastered leads to new Steam player peak of nearly 140,000 as CD Projekt Red celebrates its 11-year-old RPG's resurgence: "Much love."

Join the GamesRadar+ RPG Club today.

Welcome to the RPG Club, a month-long adventure through one unforgettable role-playing game. This October shall be spent exploring CD Projekt Red's gorgeous new remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of the undefeated best RPGs of the last two decades. Our first RPG Club meeting kicked us off in style, starting right from the beginning in White Orchard region, while our second gathering poses a new question to the RPG Club: Could the bestiary have been given a rework, too? Meanwhile, RPG club Week 3 takes us into a quest whose context changes depending upon where you are in the story - something one of our intrepid writers had no idea about when they discovered it for the first time this year.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered is finally here, with all the weighty choices and dynamic third-person combat you know and love from the 2015 original (with a few adjustments). But what's actually new in the remaster, and are the chances all that noticeable? That's what this month's RPG Club is intent on discovering. From the bitesized tutorial town of White Orchard to the bustling streets of Oxenfurt, the RPG experts of GamesRadar+ are here to walk you through their favorite Witcher 3 missions across four weekly articles, examining how the latest enhancements measure up against the fondness of memory and the game's own legacy.

Below you'll find your Quest Log, which explains the rules for this month's playthrough. Each week will see a new writer focusing on a standout mission, from the most famous ones to those you might have missed in your own past playthroughs. We invite you to join us on The Path and share your own experiences, good or bad, as you explore The Continent alongside us. Do you love the new skill tree? Have you run into any performance issues? We need all the details, so be sure to weigh in down in the comments section each week!

Whether this is your first time with The Witcher 3 or your eighth with an entirely new build, RPG Club is your place to celebrate everything that makes these games and this genre so special.

Quest Log

RPG Club: The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt – Remastered (October 2026)

Meet this month's RPG Club hosts

This week's big question

RPG Masterclass

Get started with The Witcher 3

Submit your best Witcher 3 clip

Grab any great clips during your return to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? Don't forget to submit them to GamesRadar+ Replay. Not only will this give you an opportunity to share your gaming highlights with the GR+ Community, but the best clip of the month wins a $250/£250 Amazon voucher too.

The Witcher 3 Remastered has been out in the wild for a good few days now, but it's evident that CD Projekt Red isn't finished tidying up its revamped RPG just yet – and the new patch 5.01 serves as proof.

That's right, yet another update for the free upgrade to The Witcher 3 is upon us, squashing a good few bugs and addressing various complaints from fans across all platforms (except for the Nintendo Switch 2 – for now, anyway).

The full patch notes from CDPR outline all of those, starting with gameplay fixes for everything from boats moving "uncontrollably" to specific skills that haven't properly been working.

There are also UI tweaks galore and fixes specific to both PC and console players, starting with the former. For example, I'm seeing a plethora of GPU-related changes targeting the game's settings, like Dynamic Resolution Scaling and GTAO Quality.

Over on the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 end, there are entirely new settings: Bloom, Light Shafts, and Depth of Field options, with optimizations and more to boot.

As for the Switch 2 edition, well, CD Projekt Red is on it.

"In addition to this," the studio adds at the end of Patch 5.01's lengthy notes, "we are also working on an update for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered, introducing closer parity between all versions of the game, including the same global changes as on other platforms."

That, plus some other improvements.

It sounds like the developers aren't done with any of The Witcher 3 Remastered, though, if I'm honest. I think they'll keep tinkering with it as long as folks share complaints, and they seem to be implying as much, too.

Paweł Sasko, who is currently on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel as associate game director, instructs fans to "please keep us updated about any thoughts you have" over on Twitter, for instance.

So, there you have it: The Witcher 3 Remastered can only get bigger and better than here, and it's already the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, having beaten out CDPR's base RPG from 2015.

Looking for more new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for some other great titles to anticipate.

Those of you who were around for the launch of Assassin's Creed Unity will no doubt remember the cursed images that surrounded the release. Upon the game's release, players were horrified to find a recurring issue in which NPCs wouldn't load properly, leaving their faces replaced with floating eyeballs and hair. And now, The Witcher 3 fans are facing the same demons, thanks to the remaster.

The Witcher 3 Remastered arrived last week, on September 29, and by and large, it's been satisfying. There is a plethora of new settings to tinker with, and the coat is more than enough justification for old fans to come back while providing an incentive for newer ones to finally head out on Geralt's biggest quest.

But it's not a perfect experience. An increasing number of players are finding themselves facing a monster stranger more surprising than anything they encounter around the Continent. Occasionally, out of nowhere, someone they're talking to will become nothing more than teeth and eyes, as if afflicted by a curse that strips them of their flesh and blood.

Several have posted about this on Reddit. "This is not the first character I found having this issue," reads one of the earlier posts. "Their body restored after I left the inn for another quest then came back to them."

They include images of the first character, at the inn, then another merchant on the street, demonstrating that it's not an isolated issue. Several others have joined them, each equal parts terrifying and hilarious.

One makes the comparison with Unity, pointing out that they found it at the end of a questline. The examples are from disparate playtimes, the longest being 15 hours in. To get that far without seeing any kind of noticeable bug in an RPG as large as The Witcher 3 is pretty good innings, I'd say.

Much like the low-poly pigeon, I kind of hope CD Projekt Red leaves this in, too. I mean, what harm? Maybe we could do with being a little creeped out every now and again, it keeps life exciting.

The Witcher 3 Remastered leads to new Steam player peak of nearly 140,000 as CD Projekt Red celebrates its 11-year-old RPG's resurgence: "Much love"

The Witcher 3 Remastered dropped early last week, gracing fans of Geralt's legendary 2015 adventure with a revamped RPG – one that's proven so popular, in fact, that it's boosted CD Projekt Red's playerbase like never before on Steam.

It's been one heck of a wild weekend for The Witcher 3, seeing as it managed to hit a new all-time player count peak on Steam… 11 years or so after its initial launch. This comes thanks to the recent remaster, of course, but it's mind-boggling nonetheless.

You'll find the data over on SteamDB, which shows that the game hit its record of 137,724 players just 18 hours ago. It surpassed 120,000 concurrent players last week within hours of the remaster's launch, but clearly, even more players have jumped back into Geralt's adventure in the days since.

Prior to last week, the RPG's previous record on Steam came back in January of 2020, after The Witcher Netflix series debuted, starring the ever-charming Henry Cavill as protagonist Geralt. And that peak? Well, it was just 103,329, which now sort of feels like small potatoes – and the big jump has caught CD Projekt Red's eyes, too.

Paweł Sasko, who is currently on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel as associate game director, is thrilled, for one.

In a post over on Twitter, he writes, "There is plenty of you on the path this weekend, my dears witchers. Much love and gratitude for playing our games." Attached is a screenshot of the Steam player count peak, highlighting that very nifty new record of 137,724 white-haired Witchers playing the remaster on PC.

It's also a well-deserved figure if you ask me, all things considered. The Witcher 3 Remastered is one heck of a revamp.

The new free upgrade boasts everything from massive visual overhauls to "improved combat" and much, much more. It's also not just performing well on Steam or PC.

It's currently the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, narrowly beating out the original RPG from CD Projekt Red, too. The developers are set on tweaking it for the better, too, promising more updates to come as players report any issues they're having.

Looking for other new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for some great titles to anticipate.

There's a massive laundry list of changes in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, but you know what the singular best one is? They fixed those accursed trees Roach gets stuck on when you're on horseback.

The Witcher 3 has long been recognized as both a pivotal RPG and open-world game, but it's undeniable there's a host of little frustrations that have always been present in the fantasy epic. Chief among those, for me, was the way Roach would always get stuck or snagged by trees as you rode by them – and while that may seem like an innocuous change on paper, that no longer happening is a genuine major frustration taken off the board.

More largely, it's indicative of what The Witcher 3 Remastered is on a larger scale. No one really asked for this update, or even expected it, but it's hard to deny that it improves The Witcher 3 pretty much across the board. It's made me think about how quickly we move on from video games in general, and how I wish we'd have more chances to return to games of the past, not just with visual remasters or remakes – but an integral look at how the core systems and experience can be refined or improved.

An old friend

When The Witcher 3 released, I was still in college, living in a tiny house that was, somehow, even smaller than a two-bedroom apartment. I remember being locked in my closet of a bedroom for 300 hours, entranced by The Witcher 3 and the world it effortlessly weaves. As someone, at that time, without friends, overworked, and destitutely poor, there was something about Geralt's experience that deeply resonated with me. A character locked into a path he never chose, but trying to make the best of it.

While I don't want to focus too much on the original experience of The Witcher 3, I can say that returning to the game again years later has only grown my appreciation of it. The Witcher 3's writing felt like a step above in 2015, but even over a decade later, there are very few games that can match it. The complexity of its morality and choices, the way those side quests effortlessly weave into the overarching narrative, and Geralt's fascinating growth as a father all still have real emotional heft. Of course, none of that is lost with this remaster, and it also includes The Witcher 3's two expansions. Two exceptional tales that reflect Geralt in new ways, digging into regret and redemption in Hearts of Stone, and longing for a peaceful life in Blood and Wine.

The remaster doesn't make The Witcher 3 feel like a new game; it's ostensibly the same experience, shining highs, warts, and all. That's by and large a good thing, as the messy nature of The Witcher 3 is ultimately what makes it so intoxicating – a grand journey and riveting world that feels living, breathing. But so many of those warts have now been papered over and made less egregious, if not nonexistent now. It's a bit like your friend dying their hair and getting a new haircut – you never imagined them with that hairdo, but now that you see it, it's really working.

This remaster feels very much in line with the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update CD Projekt Red released for its sci-fi RPG, and I'm honestly a bit blown away by the sheer amount of changes across the board here, and how thoughtful many of them feel.

The most obvious alteration in this remaster is a complete graphical overhaul, with lighting in particular being given the most attention. For the most part, the visual upgrade makes The Witcher 3 even more stunning, with environments especially given an extra pop. The Italian Riviera-inspired fields of Tuissant shimmer in the sunlight, and you can almost feel the thick humidity of Velen's swamps. Hair physics have also been touched up, and character animations look even smoother.

While I largely think the visuals lean into The Witcher 3's distinct blend of realism and stylization even more, there is the occasional character that looks just a bit wonky in the upgraded visuals. Equally, this visual upgrade seemingly comes with a few new performance issues. Playing on PC I've occasionally run into slowdowns in some of the busier scenes or combat encounters. But it should be noted that CD Projekt Red has already committed to performance improvements.

While you likely wouldn't notice unless you were deliberately looking for it, there's a whole wealth of new animations spread across combat as well. Geralt has new visual effects for casting Signs, new combat finishers, and idle animations. These changes are subtle, obviously, but add a greater sense of variety, especially when you combine them with the sweeping changes made to gameplay systems.

The Witcher 3 Remastered's visual upgrade is nice, but where the majority of changes lie for this version of the game is in gameplay changes. Again, I must state here how utterly thankful I am to be rid of that godforsaken tree problem.

But the change I legitimately enjoy the most is the overhauled skill system, which feels much smarter, streamlined, and encourages experimentation. The original game's skill system was, in short, a mess. Even just the layout of the skill system has been entirely changed, resembling more of a proper skill tree now rather than just a slapdash grid of things to choose from. This visually makes a whole lot more sense, providing a nice new sense of progression. But under the hood, there have also been changes to refine bonus values for skills, synergies between certain skills, and more.

It's a bit hard to drill down into exactly how this changes things, but after a few dozen hours, I can say I absolutely found The Witcher 3's progression more satisfying with this system. It feels drastically easier to make "builds" now, and really fine-tune what kind of Witcher you want to play as, whether that's a sword-slinging expert or a crafty master of bombs and potions.

To complement these changes, combat has a new "Modern" camera that tracks closer to Geralt to make the action pop, while enemy behavior has also been very slightly tweaked. These changes aren't enough to make The Witcher 3's combat one of the all-time greats, but it does go a decent way to making battles feel more dynamic and challenging. I particularly like the new camera design, as it feels like even that slight shift in perspective makes battles feel more like crunchy knock-down brawls, rather than tactical RPG affairs – a shift that fits the game's tone better.

My other favorite change is an overhauled menu, which is much simpler and easier to navigate. In particular, the codex doesn't feel nearly as cumbersome, to the point that I actually enjoy reading some of those character bios and books without having to dig through a metaphorical pile.

The way you move through The Witcher 3's world and engage with it has also been nicely touched up and made less aggravating: climbing doesn't feel as cumbersome, some quest tracking is easier, Witcher senses feel clearer to use, it's easier to run away from combat, and the list goes on.

Again, a lot of these are changes that you simply wouldn't notice if you weren't looking, but as someone who's put a good 600 hours into The Witcher 3 over the last decade, the difference is palpable. This remaster simply looks and feels better to play in so many ways, not changing the overall experience, but enhancing it – a game that already got a "next-gen update" last year.

While remasters or remakes certainly aren't anything new, it's extremely rare to see a studio take a brush to a past game to truly touch it up, really dig down to the roots and say, "What can we do to make this even better – take out some of those frustrations that couldn't be erased initially?" These video games that take thousands of man-hours, years of people's lives poured into them, deserve that chance in so many ways. It's just a shame more don't get it.

But in The Witcher 3's case, the sprawling RPG has simply never been better.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered was reviewed on PC with a code provided by the publisher.

Tracking down your own gaming prey while you wait for The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past expansion and The Witcher 4? Our games like The Witcher 3 recommendations can point you on the right path, while our best open world games and best RPGs rankings have even more in store.

You know the iconic low-poly pigeon from The Witcher 3? The one that became a running joke in the community, and miraculously made it in the remaster? They're taking over the whole damn RPG, thanks to some modders who're dedicated to low-poly supremacy.

Bit of backstory, if you're not clued in: there's a bird in The Witcher 3 with distinctly anachronistic textures. Where most everything else in the fantasy world is gorgeous and smooth and well-rendered, this feathered NPC is angular and blocky, as if they just migrated over from Primal on the PS2.

Needless to say, players fell in love, and it's managed to survive the 11 years since without being changed by CD Projekt Red. It even escaped a do-over when the devs put together the substantial upgrade in the new remaster, because it's our blocky pigeon now, and we love them.

But it doesn't have any low-poly friends. Being one of one is a lonely existence, just ask Gonzo in Muppets From Space. Well, a mod fixes this. "He is back. And he is tired of being ridiculed," starts the description for Low-Poly Pigeon - The Revenge, which transforms every Griffin on Geralt of Rivia's sprawling adventure into smaller and more rectangular animals.

"Every Griffin encounter, every hunt and every supposedly terrifying aerial attack is now carried out by the same bird you once laughed at," writes modder grapedia. "Their sounds have also been replaced with pigeon cooing, so they will calmly announce their arrival before trying to kill you."

Incredible, terrifying, and beautiful, all at once. "He could not fight back on the internet," grapedia continues. "He could not stop the memes. But here, in the Northern Realms, things are different. The pigeon finally has claws, wings, several thousand hit points and absolutely nothing left to lose."

This is his game now, we're just playing through it. And just like that, I'm overcome with an urge to start a new save in the remaster. Never underestimate the power of a cute bird.

"We're working on it": The Witcher 3 Remastered gets 2 hotfixes in 1 day as CD Projekt Red promises more improvements to the RPG amid ongoing performance issues

The Witcher 3 Remastered only just released, but CD Projekt Red is already addressing some of the revamped RPG's most pressing issues – on both consoles and PC, too.

Two new patches have rolled out today for The Witcher 3 Remastered, with the first arriving on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S earlier in the morning.

CD Projekt Red unveiled it in a post over on X, explaining that it addresses everything from lighting issues to problems with DLSS in the Xbox Play Anywhere version of the game. All that, plus "various other adjustments to ensure parity with the PC version" of the RPG," apparently.

The developers clarified that they're "investigating" further issues, too, and also "preparing a hotfix for PC" – a hotfix that came mere hours after the console-specific patch.

As per the official Witcher website, it tackles everything from saves not working properly to audio volume… and, yes, the NVIDIA Hairworks problem that's tanking PC performance for many players.

Unsurprisingly, CD Projekt Red isn't finished yet, either.

Global community and social media director Marcin Momot confirms as much, first covering the PC hotfix and how "the rough size of the download is 5GB."

According to him, the devs "plan to have the fix on consoles for the volume issue," too, with "no date" set as of now – but, still. "We're working on it."

Paweł Sasko, who is currently on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel as associate game director, writes something similar in his own post. "Our work continues my dears to provide you with the best possible experience on The Witcher 3 Remastered," it reads – so, yeah.

There you have it, folks, CD Projekt Red isn't going to stop tinkering with its new remaster until every wrinkle is ironed out… and I don't think that'll be the case any time soon. If you run into any issues yourself, be sure to flag it, as it's evident the studio is paying close attention to our feedback.

Looking for more new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for some to anticipate.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is finally upon us, gracing us with yet another journey through CD Projekt Red's iconic RPG – but it sadly isn't going smoothly for everyone.

Some players, particularly those on PC, have run into performance issues. With the new free upgrade and all its visual overhauls, this doesn't exactly come as a surprise, but it's still not acceptable by CD Projekt Red's high standards – so, yes, the devs are on the case.

The studio reveals as much in a post over on Twitter, explaining that it's managed to figure out the cause of some fans' performance woes on the computer: NVIDIA tech.

Or, to be more precise, the NVIDIA tech that makes Geralt's hair look oh so realistic as it renders and simulates more dynamic hair.

As CD Projekt Red writes, "We've identified an issue related to NVIDIA Hairworks that may significantly affect performance" – and, yep, that's that tech. For now, the studio has a temporary solution: "We recommend disabling that setting until this is addressed in a patch."

Although it's not a permanent fix for the problem, it's evident that the team is cooking up a more impactful update as it alludes to a future "patch" on PC following its quick advice.

Comments show unhappy players across other platforms, though – not just those using their computers for The Witcher 3 Remastered. As the top response reads, "Please fix The Witcher 3 Remastered on base PS5. The performance is absolutely horrible right now."

Others below it echo this very sentiment, outlining how even the RPG's "performance mode" doesn't properly work for them.

In other words, it seems that there may be at least a few more wrinkles for CD Projekt Red to iron out, performance-wise – but something tells me the devs will be on it fast. Who knows, the PC patch they mention might even turn into a larger patch addressing problems that console users are having, too.

Only time will tell… but, thankfully, the remaster is doing well aside from these hiccups. So well, in fact, that it's currently the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, beating out the original 2015 RPG by a solid two points.

Searching for some other new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for more.

The Witcher 3 Loot Merge is a new option added to the game with the release of the 2026 remaster, but it's not immediately obvious how it works and this is because, as far as I can tell, sometimes it doesn't.

This appears to be a function rather than a bug, so it's important that you know how Loot Merge works and, vitally, when. If you're wondering whether to turn it on or off or how it works then, this is what you need to know.

What is The Witcher 3 Loot Merge?

The Witcher 3 Remastered Loot Merge collects nearby lootable items from the same type of container and bundles them together in one loot window. However, this only seems to work for certain containers.

I've found that loot merge seems to work for corpses, but not cabinets and chests. For example, in the image above, you can see that the drops for two or three wolves all appear in the same list, making it much quicker to loot the bodies. However, two nearby bags, like in the image at the top of the page, will still bring up separate loot windows.

However it works, it definitely makes looting that much easier and quicker, and I strongly recommend turning it on - there certainly seems to be no downside to doing so.

For more guidance through the Continent, check out our guides on how to transmog in The Witcher 3 Remastered, whether you should simulate a Witcher 2 save, and our general Witcher 3 tips to help you survive.

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Now that The Witcher 3 Remastered is finally here, we're all looking forward to CD Projekt Red's new expansion, Songs of the Past – but we don't need to rush through the RPG's other DLC, apparently.

Fool's Theory – the partner studio working with CD Projekt Red on the expansion – creative vision director Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz confirms as much in a new interview with VGC.

She implies that the upcoming content will actually work around the player and what they've done in the RPG so far, rather than requiring them to have completed both Hearts of Stone as well as Blood and Wine prior to engaging with Songs of the Past.

"From a practical side, people will be able to start Songs of the Past immediately after finishing the main story," she explains.

"So, you do not have to finish the expansions. However, when it comes to the timeline, those expansions were before, so we continue with the story that Geralt really wanted to retire, but then he cannot because his best friend asks him for this one last favor to accompany him."

Sounds good to me – and, again, there's no need to fear missing out. Songs of the Past works on your time, so to speak.

"And then we, of course, continue the story depending on whether the player has finished the second expansion or not," as Kuzia-Rokosz says. "We carry that in the story, in dialogue, consequences, and so on."

How? Well, I suppose we'll have to wait and see… "But you do not have to finish previous expansions to start Songs of the Past."

It's great news for those of us with a serious sense of FOMO (at the best of times, if you're me), plus it leaves time to complete everything The Witcher 3 has to offer, which is, uh, a lot.

On average, according to How Long To Beat, anyway, folks spend a whopping 27 hours and a bit enjoying the Blood and Wine expansion. That number rises to over 40 for fans wanting to 100% it – so, yeah. A lot is an understatement, really.

Songs of the Past itself releases sometime next year, with CD Projekt Red only having given us a 2027 launch window. I've got my own fingers crossed it comes sooner rather than later, though – especially seeing as we can apparently dive straight into it.

Searching for new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for more to look forward to.

The new Transmog feature in Witcher 3 Remastered allows players to "Reforge" their weapons and armor, allowing the equipment you have to look like any other piece of gear you've found without affecting its stats. That means that if you own some Mastercrafted Witcher gear but don't like the way it looks, you can take it to be Reforged and Trasmog it to look like any other piece of equipment in your inventory! However, there's only two NPCs in the entirety of Witcher 3 that offer this service, and neither are available without a lot of work, as we'll explain below.

How to Reforge and Transmog your gear in Witcher 3 Remastered

To transmog your equipment, you need to go to either of the Witcher 3 Master Blacksmiths. To transmog armor, visit Yoana in Crow's Perch / Velen (above). For weapons, it's Hattori in Novigrad Docks (below). At either, speak to them and choose the option to 'Reforge'.

The problem is that these Master Blacksmiths need to be unlocked through their own respective chains of side quests, and both of these quests have a recommended level of 24. Still, here's how to start those quest chains:

• Yoana (Master Armorer). Speak to Fergus Graem, the Smith in Crow's Perch in Velen, and tell him you're looking for a Master Armorer. This will begin a quest called (appropriately) "Master Armorers."
• Éibhear Hattori (Master Swordsmith). Speak to any weaponsmith about finding a Master Swordsmith, or go to the Dumpling Restaurant in Novigrad, found in the open plaza halfway between the Novigrad Docks and the Gate of the Heirarch fast travel points. The first quest of the quest chain is called "Of Swords and Dumplings."

Once they're unlocked, speak to them and choose Reforge to select the option to transmog equipment. In this menu, first pick the item you want to transmog, then pick another item in your inventory that you want it to look like. Then confirm and pay the asked cost to alter its appearance.

Obviously there's limits to this system (you can't make a pair of trousers into shoes), but it means that any chestpiece you own can look like any other chestpiece that you own, as an example, without altering its stats. The only downside is that you do need both the item you want to wear and the one you want it to look like in your inventory when you head off to either smith, so I recommend making good use of your nearest stash.

To find out more about Witcher 3 armor itself and the best pieces to use, check out our separate guide. If you're playing for the first time with Remastered, or coming back after a long break, you may also be interested in our top Witcher 3 tips to get your started.

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The Witcher 3 Remastered has finally arrived, coming as a free upgrade for players who have the original 2015 RPG – and, apparently, those who borrow it, too.

If you happen to own the old Nintendo Switch version of the game – yes, the one from 2019 – you can insert it into your Switch 2 and access the full digital version of The Witcher 3 Remastered for Nintendo's newer console.

A genius user over on Reddit figured out the real-life "hack," so to speak, sharing a screenshot as evidence that they were able to snag the revamped RPG without having to pay for it.

Yep, this also means that you can theoretically borrow a copy of the Switch game and just use it momentarily to register the remaster on your Switch 2, effectively rendering it entirely free for folks with pals who own The Witcher 3 already.

As the Redditor writes, "My brother and I were able to claim the full game virtual game card for both of our accounts with the same single cartridge!" Hey – if it works, it works.

Fans seem thrilled that CD Projekt Red and Nintendo have allowed for this, unsurprisingly.

One commenter sums it up perfectly: "That's a genuinely generous way to handle it. Most publishers would have charged an upgrade fee, and letting the cartridge unlock a digital copy for more than one account is more than anyone expected. CD Projekt keeps doing this sort of thing and it's a big part of why people forgive them for Cyberpunk's launch."

Yes, they referenced the disastrous Cyberpunk 2077 release – one that has been remedied, mind you – but they're not exactly wrong. This was a great way to handle The Witcher 3 Remastered.

As another fan says, "That should be a common thing with physical [copies], good job CD Projekt!" I'm inclined to agree myself, honestly. Here's to more companies following suit… and a Songs of the Past launch that's just as successful.

Searching for some other new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for more.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past is a new expansion coming to The Witcher 3, and it promises to be the last new outing for Geralt before The Witcher 4 heads our way.

CD Projekt Red officially announced the third expansion back in May following a healthy string of rumors. With only the title to go on initially, Songs of the Past's official reveal came during Gamescom 2026 following the announcement of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. The studio then showed off a demo of the expansion during a series of RedStreams, and offered more insight into the new region it will be drawing us into, as well as some story details.

Even though I personally find it hard to believe (because what is time), The Witcher 3 came out all the way back in 2015, it continues to be one of the best RPGs around over a decade later. While it's definitely exciting to know there's a slate of upcoming CD Projekt games in the works, I'm happy to have some big reasons to return to The Witcher 3 thanks to the remaster and the upcoming DLC. So, if, like me, you can hardly wait to experience a new adventure with The Butcher of Blaviken and you find yourself wanting to learn more about what's in store in Songs of the Past, read on as I breakdown everything you need to know about the expansion.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past release date specualtion

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past release date is slated for sometime in 2027.

The 2027 launch window was revealed when the expansion was first announced, but we're still awaiting a firm release date. With The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered landing on September 29, 2026, and The Witcher 4 "targeting" a 2028 release, Songs of the Past looks set to bridge the gap between the two sometime next year.

While we'll have to wait it out for an official update on the release date, it would be pretty neat to see Songs of the Past arrive in May to mirror the original release of the base game all the way back in 2015.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the past platforms

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past expansion is coming to PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X when it releases in 2027.

Since new content is coming to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the remaster and Songs of the Past, CD Projekt Red confirmed changes have been made to specs, with amended minimum requirements on PC, which are:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400
  GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
  VRAM: 6 GB
  RAM: 12 GB
  Storage: 70 GB SSD
  OS: 64-bit Windows 11

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past trailer

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past location

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past takes place in the new realm of Letten, an expansive region that CD Projekt Red says is a fully realized open-world "comparable in scope" to the sizable Blood and Wine expansion.

As detailed in the Gamescom 2026 Showcase Supercut video, Letten is yours to freely explore just like other regions in the expansive RPG, and is "packed with new quests, interesting characters, places to find, and monsters to find". The area is known as "the land of the plenty", with a lush, idyllic look and feel.

Said to be heavily inspired by the Polish and English countryside, with pagan-like architecture and customs, the world setting is "sheltered from the conflicts" that affect other parts of the continent.

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine added a huge new region in the beautiful setting of Toussaint, which set the scene for a host of memorable questlines. To know Songs of the Past is echoing this scale is very exciting indeed. If you'd like a refresher on the Blood and Wine expansion, you can check out our original The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine review for more.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past story

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past's story follows Geralt as he travels to Letten to help his friend Dandelion with "a family matter".

With the Gamescom 2026 showcase giving us a look at a demo of the upcoming expansion, the new region is actually revealed to be Dandelion's homeland, and as the member of a noble family (Dandelion's real name is Julian Alfred Pankratz, with the title of Viscount of Lettenhove), you'll actually be able to visit the grand manor where the lovable bard grew up.

The footage shows all is not well at home, though, with black banners denoting signs of mourning, which speak to why Dandelion has returned after many years away.

While CD Projekt Red is keeping most of the story under wraps, the studio also teased that there's a dark secret lurking beneath the surface of Letten, and of course, we'll get wrapped up in it, too. Venturing to the Garden of Thorns, which is said to be the only flawed spot in the region that everyone avoids, you'll be joined by Dandelion's cousin Lilla as you go there to investigate an old Lettenhove family legend.

As the pair approach a thorny gate in the garden, Geralt remarks that Dandelion might be in it, which links to one very salient point: Dandelion is missing. As our guided hands-off demo of the expansion at Gamescom 2026 explores, Geralt had some kind of ominous dream after a wild night during local celebrations in a location known as Belleteyn. Upon waking, Dandelion is gone, and his absence leads the White Wolf to team up with Lilla and set out to the Garden of Thorns in search of his friend.

Interestingly, during a RedStream at Gamescom 2026, the team at CD Projekt Red said Geralt gets pulled out of retirement for another adventure, which seemingly suggests this takes place after the events of Blood and Wine.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past gameplay

We've gotten to see some work in progress for The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past gameplay thanks to the Gamescom demo, which not only shows off some very beautiful vistas that Geralt explores by boat and on the back of his trusty steed Roach, but also some combat in action.

With the visual improvements of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Remastered bringing to the idyllic setting of Letten, the Songs of the Past will also benefit from enhancements the remaster introduces to the combat system, with an updated camera and better targeting for more precision during encounters.

As you take new quests and explore the region, you can also expect to come across new enemies. When Geralt goes through the Garden of Thorns, we're introduced to a new monster in the Swarmion, a ghoulish-looking enemy that protects itself with a swarm of hornets.

While Geralt will once again have his swords and signs, during this combat encounter CD Projekt Red shows off Geralt's new chain tool. Operating much like a grappling hook, the chain latches onto the Swarmion so the witcher can yank the enemy closer and land a hit with his silver sword. But more excitingly, the chain also features a weak point system, and should you exploit it at the right opportune moment, you can execute some bloody finishers.

For more on the changes introduced in the remaster, you can find our guide to what's new in The Witcher 3 Remastered.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past development

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past is being co-developed by CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory.

Known for isometric character-driven RPG, The Thaumaturge, Fool's Theory also provided support for the gameplay and tools programming for Baldur's Gate 3, and is also working with CD Projekt Red on the upcoming Witcher 1 Remake.

It's not often that you get an expansion of this scale for a game that was released over 10 years ago, but CD Projekt Red says it wouldn't have been possible without the RPG's remaster which launched in September 2026. With so many advancements in technology since 2015, it makes sense that the Remaster and its various overhauled features opened up the door to a shiny new expansion, too.

While you can snap up the remaster as a free upgrade if you already own the game (with the two previous expansions included at no additional cost), Songs of the Past will be a paid expansion. CD Projekt Red has yet to confirm The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past price, but I'll be watching out for more updates.

For more, check out our pick of the best games like The Witcher 3.

Today marks the release of The Witcher 3 Remastered, a big update to CD Projekt Red's monumental RPG. On the heels of this, we're also getting an expansion, Songs of the Past, next year – only 12 years into the game's life. Why? Well, because the devs simply felt they had more ground to cover.

"It was a great opportunity to tell something new about already established characters and to show them from a different angle," Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz, creative vision director at CDPR support studio Fool's Theory, tells VGC.

"What I mean is, this is still a fully-fledged expansion and a richer story first and foremost, but then we have Geralt's best friend with us, who also faces some important stuff in his life, right?" she adds.

She's referring to our old musical companion, Dandelion, whose backstory forms the backdrop Songs of the Past. You're visiting his home region of Lettenhove, where our monster-hunting hero winds up uncovering and slaying some nasty pieces of work.

Creating an entire slab of DLC sprang from wanting to dig into Geralt's supporting cast just that much deeper, and seeing what emerges. "We always wanted to say more about the people who are important to Geralt," Kuzia-Rokosz adds. "So, it isn't like we wanted to strongly conclude something, more that we still believe that there is still more to say about Geralt."

This is as true mechanically as it is narratively. The new chain weapon is actually something CD Projekt Red tried to implement in the base game, but couldn't. Geralt of Rivia's misadventures around the Continent have already given us hundreds of hours of entertainment, and it seems we'll get to enjoy plenty more before his shift is over and we get The Witcher 4.

The Witcher 3 Remastered did not, in fact, change the RPG's hilarious low-poly pigeons, much to fans' delight: "Glory to low poly."

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launched only a few hours ago, but it's already broken the 2015 RPG's all-time player record on Steam and shows no signs of slowing down.

It's been 11 years since the launch of The Witcher 3, and being the great game it is, it's had many peaks over its lifetime. Looking at SteamDB, after debuting with a healthy peak of over 92k concurrent players on Steam in its launch month, it eventually surpassed its own record five years later in January 2020, shortly after the first season of The Witcher TV series aired, bringing in 103k players.

Even though it's had its highs since – thanks to the TV show and the 2022 next-gen update, for example – The Witcher 3 has never surpassed that 2020 peak… until now. Within hours of launch, The Witcher 3 Remastered has pushed the RPG past its old record, and it keeps gaining more and more concurrent Steam players basically by the minute. It's at 120,324 at the moment, but I've had to update this multiple times since I began writing this article.

And, as you may have noticed, in many parts of the world at the moment, including the US, UK, and Europe, we're in the middle of a working day. A huge chunk of players won't have even had the chance to dive into the remaster yet, so we can definitely expect this to go up further in the hours to come, and perhaps even more come the weekend.

It'll be interesting to see if CD Projekt Red gives any insight into how many of these are returning players versus completely new ones. The Witcher 3 Remastered is available as a free update to anyone who already owned the base game, so there's a huge incentive there for veteran fans to return to the RPG (assuming they needed one in the first place).

And, so far, it's not just the player count that's looking positive. The Witcher 3 Remastered's Metacritic score doesn't just make it the best-rated game of 2026, but also the best version of The Witcher 3 to date.

The Witcher 3 Remastered did not, in fact, change the RPG's hilarious low-poly pigeons, much to fans' delight: "Glory to low poly."

If you've started up The Witcher 3 Remastered and are wondering what the 'simulate Witcher 2' option does, I've got the answers and some advice regarding whether you should or not - even if you've never played The Witcher 2.

This option is actually quite important, as it changes some of the main story beats and even adds/removes quests depending on what you choose, so here's what you need to know about simulating your Witcher 2 save in The Witcher 3 Remastered.

Should you simulate a Witcher 2 save in The Witcher 3?

Yes, you should choose 'On' when asked whether to simulate a The Witcher 2 save in The Witcher 3 Remastered, as this gives you the chance to pick important story consequences from the former game, for example, whether certain people lived or died.

This option is given whether you've played The Witcher 2 or not, while players who have save data from the second game are also given the option to import their save. This automatically brings across the decisions you made in The Witcher 2.

Simulating a save instead opens a series of dialogue options during Geralt's visit to Emperor Emhyr's palace in Vizima, during which you can choose who lived and who died in the story leading to this point. The most important option relating to The Witcher 3 is whether Letho is dead or alive, which you can decide in the final question. To be able to interact with him and complete his quests in The Witcher 3, you must choose the option whereby he is still alive. If he's dead, you'll miss a section of the game.

If you turn the save simulation off, the story instead follows default options. I'll list these below, but please note that there are some Witcher 2 spoilers below (I'll leave Witcher 3 spoilers out):

• Aryan La Valette is alive.
• Henselt is dead.
• You saved Anais.
• Síle de Tansarville died.
• Letho was killed.

Again, this is a bad option to choose if you want to experience everything in The Witcher 3 Remastered as Letho is dead in this playthrough, meaning you'll completely bypass his questline.

Whether you're returning to The Witcher 3 with the remaster or playing this iconic RPG for the first time, we've got other guides to help you out, including a list of general Witcher 3 tips, the best romance options in The Witcher 3, and the top Witcher 3 Gwent cards for your deck.

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The Witcher 3 Remastered is finally here, bringing everything from "improved combat" to massively reworked visuals with it – reworked visuals that had fans worried the RPG would lose its iconic low-poly pigeons.

Yes, you read that right. In case you don't recall them from the 2015 release, the pigeons are exactly what they sound like: hilariously low-poly assets that are cursed… in the best way possible, of course.

Much like Final Fantasy 14's own low-poly grapes, The Witcher 3's new graphical overhaul has sparked fears of a potential loss of said pigeons. These have been all the more solidified with screenshots of the game's supposedly revamped pigeon design.

Just have a look over at Reddit, where one player shows a side-by-side comparison, writing, "Pigeons Remastered." Comments show distraught folks, and threads elsewhere online are largely the same.

One person on Twitter shouts, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," for instance, while another similarly alerts fellow fans to the presumed change.

I have good news, though – this is all "a false alarm," as Kotaku editor Ethan Gach confirms in his own post. The "new" pigeon design is actually just what the street pigeons look like. Our beloved flying pigeons are intact.

It comes as a great relief, of course – because what could be more important than the pigeons, am I right? Players are happy, anyway, that's for sure.

As one person puts it in response to Gach's welcome confirmation, "The pigeons are still there! I repeat. The pigeons are still there! Now with glorious path tracing. Share so that people are made aware." The top reply? "Glory to low poly."

Glory to low poly indeed, anon. Glory to low poly indeed.

Now that the matter of low-poly pigeons in The Witcher 3 Remastered has been settled, we can all enjoy the game. After all, it is currently the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, beating out the original RPG by two points.

CD Projekt Red isn't done with the game yet, either, with new expansion Songs of the Past arriving sometime next year – and, you know, all the other exciting upcoming CD Projekt Red games, too.

The Witcher 3 Remaster overhauls skill trees, adds new quest markers, brings a mode to "reduce cognitive load," and more, CD Projekt Red reveals in patch notes.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered is finally here, and in very positive but perhaps wholly expected news, its early reviews place it as the best version of The Witcher 3 yet, based on its Metascore. Even better, it's currently 2026's best-rated game of the year on the site, too.

11 years on, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that The Witcher 3 is a very good game. With a Metacritic Metascore of 92, the 2015 RPG is labelled as one of the site's must-play titles, and for good reason. The Complete Edition, which comes with the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions, sits lower with a Metascore of 85, but that's thanks to most of the reviews for the release being logged for the Switch version, which had some mixed ratings due to its worsened performance on the platform. The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions, on the other hand, averaged out at an incredible 94, but these sadly didn't help the Metascore since significantly less reviews were written for them.

But it's a Metascore of 94 that The Witcher 3 Remastered is currently holding onto, based on nine reviews logged on PC. There's definitely room for fluctuation here – the Metascores of the previous two releases were based on 79 and 65 reviews, respectively – but if it's able to maintain this, it appears we have the very best version of the game on our hands. You'd hope that'd be the case, of course – it's meant to be a shinier, improved version of an already fantastic RPG – but clearly, it manages to live up to those expectations.

What's more, this score actually puts The Witcher 3 Remastered right at the top of Metacritic's list of the best games of the year – currently tied with twin stick shooter Sektori. That means it's beaten big hitters like Resident Evil Requiem, Pokemon Pokopia, and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.

We'll soon be seeing fan reactions start flooding in, too, as the Remastered version of the game just went live less than an hour ago at the time of writing. There are certainly worse ways to pass the time waiting for The Witcher 4.

The Witcher 4 dev is "still predominantly using people" over AI in development, says CEO, but "everybody has to make those judgments on their own."

The remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt comes out tomorrow, and CD Projekt Red has released a list of the most notable changes you'll find in the mammoth RPG. You've got plenty of audio and visual improvements, of course, but there are some deeper tweaks to be mindful of, too.

One such example is in the skill trees. "Skills are now organized into a skill tree and each skill has three ranks," read the notes. "Unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills rather than spending a set number of skill points."

Your existing skill points will be reset if you're importing a save file, so be wary of that, and several of the skills have been renamed to be more appropriate to what they represent. No examples are given, so it'll be worth scanning through to re-orientate yourself across your entire build.

A real quality-of-life improvement is that quest markers have been altered in your world map. Incomplete questlines have their own marker now, letting you choose what you're up to much more easily.

Another change that I quite enjoy is that meditation will now give you a neat little time-lapse rather than just putting you into a menu. This is the kind of little detail that can improve immersion, especially in longer sessions, and I'm glad it's now part of the game.

A big addition is the Bard's Ballad mode for accessibility. It's "designed to reduce cognitive load for players who experience mental fatigue or have difficulty concentrating. It streamlines gameplay by simplifying certain mechanics and disabling select features for a smoother, more focused adventure."

Anything that makes games like this more approachable and relaxing is good by me. Even the photo mode's got a look in here, with loads more options for your camera work, including the power to insert any character into the frame after you've picked your shot. Mighty.

Have a perusal of everything once the update lands tomorrow. Then you can start preparing for Songs of the Past to arrive next year.

The Witcher 3 writer behind the RPG's most iconic questline returns to CD Projekt Red after 10 years, right on time for The Witcher 4

Although The Witcher 3 came out over a decade ago now, it still boasts some of the greatest talent the video game industry has known – especially in the writing department.

Karolina Stachyra is no exception, having worked at CD Projekt Red as a senior writer on The Witcher 3 from 2012 to 2016.

She helped shape the "main storyline," as her LinkedIn profile highlights, but she also designed some of its greatest questlines – including what might just stand as the greatest of all: Bloody Baron. Stachyra created a good chunk of expansion content, too, like the Dead Man's Party quest.

In other words, she's incredibly skilled… and after about 10 years, she's returning to the beloved Witcher studio as an "expert writer" – right on time for The Witcher 4, you know.

Stachyra doesn't actually specify what projects she's working on now, however, so it might not be The Witcher 4, to be fair. There's a small chance she's contributed to The Witcher 3 Remastered or Songs of the Past as well, considering the timing.

Stachyra's profile says her new stint at CD Projekt Red started in February this year, when she joined as a freelance consultant. August is when she stepped into her presumably more stable role as expert writer – but that's all the LinkedIn specifies, really.

It's exciting to see, nonetheless, especially as her return marks yet another talented arrival at the studio. Back in May, there was senior Kingdom Come: Deliverance designer and writer Zdeněk Glatz.

Before that, CD Projekt Red welcomed other Warhorse Studios veterans, an ex-Baldur's Gate 3 dev, a former Mass Effect lead, and more – over 220 new developers, in fact.

The future looks bright for the company, if you ask me, with so much in store. There's The Witcher 4, of course, but also Cyberpunk 2 and other new titles shrouded in mystery. In other words, it's a brilliant time to be an RPG stan… that's for certain.

Searching for new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of the best upcoming CD Projekt Red games to keep an eye on.

The Witcher 3 Remastered release time is almost upon us, which means you'll soon be able to visit the upgraded and enhanced Northern Kingdoms as you travel with Geralt of Rivia in search of monsters to slay. Helpfully there's only one time you need to know about as there's a simultaneous global launch taking place, though naturally this means the release will be more convenient in certain parts of the world than others! To find out when the adventure starts in your region, this is when you can play The Witcher 3 Remastered wherever you are.

If you want the lowdown on the biggest changes to look forward to, then here's a round up of what's new in The Witcher 3 Remastered.

What time does The Witcher 3 Remastered come out?

The updated version of the game is arriving on September 29, and the launch will be simultaneous globally with The Witcher 3 Remastered release time set for 10am UTC on all platforms. This translates around the world as follows:

• US West Coast: 3am PDT
• US East Coast: 6am EDT
• UK: 11am BST
• Central Europe: 12noon CEST
• Eastern Australia: 8pm AEST
• New Zealand: 11pm NZDT

That means The Witcher 3 Remastered is launching early morning in the United States, around lunchtime across Europe, and late evening in Australia and New Zealand. As this release is simultaneous, this is nothing to be gained from any tricks to change the internal clock on your device to another time zone or use a VPN to make it think you're situated in a different location.

When it does go live, all you need to do is update your game on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, or Switch 2 to get the Remastered version for free, which also includes the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions at no additional cost. If you're still on PS4 or Xbox One then you won't be able to get the Remastered upgrade, but those two DLC packs have now been made free so you can at least check them out if you haven't already.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is coming to all players as a free update on September 29, and new footage from developer CD Projekt Red suggests you'll want to take a close look at what settings you have enabled, because I fear some details and atmosphere may be lost in translation.

CDPR posted a new side-by-side comparison for The Witcher 3 and its upcoming remaster on its channels, and boy has it stoked some conversation. The clip sees Geralt torching a group of Drowners in a swamp with a flame spell, both pre- and post-remaster.

I hate to say it, and I'm surprised to say it given how good the remaster has appeared in footage until now, but the new version looks worse to me. With zero hyperbole, I had the "before" and "after" clips mixed up for several seconds, to the point that I checked CDPR's YouTube and Twitter to make sure the studio hadn't made a mistake in the labels.

The caveat here is that we don't know the exact graphics settings or hardware environment that were used for these side-by-side clips. Maybe some elements were disabled to emphasize others. The video also comes with a disclaimer: "Work in progress. Does not represent the final look of the game." But we are just days away from the remaster's launch, so I don't know how much work is left.

A few changes stand out. The skin and muscle of the Drowners feels less detailed, not necessarily because it is – you can see the same creases and patterns if you look close, though they do seem scalier in the original – but perhaps because of the bizarrely glossy, metallic shine they have in the remastered clip. Either these are rare Chrome Drowners or GPUs have gone too far.

The fire effect lingering on the Drowners arguably looks more realistic in the new version, but it feels less powerful to me – artificial, less like an inferno and more like a torch. In the new version, it looks like there is fire on them; in the OG, they look to be on fire. The remastered clip also doesn't have the same fiery, scarlet reflections in the water, which is strange given how gorgeous the updated water is otherwise. The lighting on the plants, which are certainly lush, also seems less affected by the fire itself in the remaster.

Maybe this is a function of when during the in-game day these clips were recorded, but the original Witcher 3 has more noticeable fog and a rich, dusky atmosphere with a warm redness to it, while the remaster feels almost sterile in its path traced brightness. Combined with the missing fire reflections, the new version feels a bit washed out, and this is worryingly close to the color shortage and vibrancy famine that we've seen in some other remasters as well as modern AAA games.

I look at this clip and I feel a clash of contrast. A lot of individual components might look better up close in the remaster, but when you pull back and see the whole canvas, the original game looks more cohesive to me, not to mention more saturated. Maybe that will change when I'm actually in, and accustomed to, the remastered game world, but a lot of these differences feel pretty empirical. I have a pretty beefy PC, so I would definitely throw this remaster under the microscope when we get it in our hands.

Many other people seem to feel the same. "Why removing the colours and the fog?" replies one Twitter user. "Hope you add those sparkles and reflection you did a great job," says a YouTube viewer. "Lighting and Clarity in the latest looks great , but I really liked the red glow/filter (idk) in the before," agrees another.

CD Projekt Red has now moved on from its in-house REDengine and adopted Unreal Engine 5 for The Witcher 4, but co-CEO Michał Nowakowski says that wasn't due to the technical issues that Cyberpunk 2077 ran into.

What's new in The Witcher 3 Remastered?

There's a lot of new stuff coming to The Witcher 3 Remastered, and it's not just a graphical or performance overhaul, as there are some gameplay and mechanic changes being introduced to boot, many of which will come as great news to existing fans of the iconic RPG.

The best news about the remaster is that it comes as a free upgrade to anyone who already owns the base game, so whether you're wondering what's going to change in one of your favorite games or you're considering buying it now for the first time, here's what's new with The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered.

Want to know when you can take a look at these features for yourself? Then find out The Witcher 3 Remastered release time in your region.

Everything new in The Witcher 3 Remastered

Here's a list of most of the new additions and changes coming in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered:

• Upgraded visuals
• Enhanced combat
• New Witcher Signs FX
• Revamped mount handling
• Improved traversal and movement
• Refreshed monster behavior
• Revamped skill tree
• Transmogrification
• Expanded photo mode
• New finishers
• Immersive meditation
• Refined animations
• New quest tracking
• UI improvements
• Looting rework
• Refreshed motion blur
• New accessibility features
• Improved menu navigation
• Ray tracing improvements
• Updated textures
• Foliage shading rework
• Global lighting rework
• New shading model
• Cross-platform mod support
• Xbox Play Anywhere support
• Switch 2 exclusive features

This is just the start of what's set to change with the remaster of The Witcher 3, with this list taken from the official announcement trailer, where you can see even more details, including Nvidia DLSS 4.5 and AMD FSR 4 compatibility, tutorial modernization, and PS5 Pro support.

While there's a lot to dissect here, I'm just going to highlight a few of the most prominent changes below.

Revamped Mount Handling

Perhaps one of the most exciting changes for The Witcher 3 fans is going to be the overhaul to mount handling, one of the most famously frustrating parts of the original game. Hopefully this means you'll get stuck on objects a little less, and path finding should feel much smoother. Given the changes to character movement as well, it may even mean your horse will be able to jump fences. After all, as you can see from the announcement trailer, Geralt can now vault fences and walls, a new mechanic added with traversal and movement improvements, so this could - and should - apply to mounts as well.

Enhanced skill tree

Another massive change from the original game comes in the form of a Skill Tree overhaul, which seems to suggest you'll be able to unlock skills in a new and more cost-effective way. Instead of being forced to unlock a certain number of basic skills before moving down the skill tree, there seems to be more fluidity between branches now, letting you unlock some of the more advanced skills earlier.

Upgraded visuals

Naturally, you'd expect a visual overhaul with any remaster, and Wild Hunt doesn't disappoint. Alongside a standard graphics update, we can look forward to the likes of updated textures, a foliage shading rework, new shading, raytracing, and lighting, and even ray-traced hair, which, as we can tell from some of the most downloaded Witcher 3 mods, is an important feature for many.

Alongside graphical changes, there's even more to make Geralt, Ciri, and even the world's monsters more easy on the eye with new Witcher Signs effects, new finisher animations, and a completely new transmogrification system.

Among the rest of the changes, I'm also particularly excited about quest tracking improvements, making it easier to track and complete all of the Witcher 3 side quests and Wild Hunt contracts, hopefully with some sort of level or distance filter. I also can't wait to make the most of the improved photo mode and capture the newly upgraded visuals in all their glory.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Good news for Xbox users: CD Projekt Red says that The Witcher 3 Remastered will be part of Microsoft's Xbox Play Anywhere program come its September 29 release.

What exactly does that mean? Well, put simply, folks who play The Witcher 3 Remastered on the Xbox Series X|S will be able to play on PC as well… entirely for free.

CD Projekt Red confirms as much over on Twitter (as machine-translated via the platform's own built-in software, DeepL, and Google), stating that the Xbox version of the RPG's remaster will support Xbox Play Anywhere, the program that allows us to play Xbox games on our computers, too.

It's quite good news, seeing as people won't have to 'double dip,' so to speak, should they already own The Witcher 3 on Xbox – and it's made all the better by the fact that the remaster itself is arriving as a completely free upgrade for those of us with the base game in our libraries.

We've got everything from "improved combat" to massively reworked visuals to look forward to with it, too, which is just the cherry on top.

This marks yet another win for the Xbox brand as well, seeing as it's had a few (and then some) recently.

There's the whole disc-to-digital program that's rolling out, allowing users to claim digital copies of games they buy physically. Then, there's the fact that Physint, Hideo Kojima's upcoming project, has now moved from PlayStation to having Xbox as its publisher. All in all, Microsoft's gaming arm is clearly celebrating various wins.

CD Projekt Red's free availability on PC for Xbox users is another, I suppose. Now we just need to (im)patiently wait for The Witcher 3 Remastered… and all the other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, from The Witcher 4 to the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, whenever it may come.

But, with the remaster and new expansion Songs of the Past in the works, I'd say we'll have plenty to tide us over.

The Witcher 3 "is not a monument" says lead writer ahead of Songs of the Past, which means "adding a new expansion is not such a huge deal."

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was a trying time for CD Projekt Red. After years of anticipation, the RPG arrived glitchy and broken, leading to a number of post-launch patches and updates to make it more playable. It was the last major release from the studio to use REDEngine, its in-house engine, before switching to Unreal Engine 5 for The Witcher 4, but one of the company's leaders contends this is more of a coincidence.

Michał Nowakowski, the joint CEO of CD Projekt Red, appeared on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast (thanks, VGC), where he explained why the decision was made to change technology.

"A lot of people think like this, but this is a bit of a false assumption, I would say," he explains when asked about if the sci-fi blockbuster influenced the choice, "because the issue with Cyberpunk was not really REDengine itself.”

The logic internally was that CD Projekt Red makes games, and the REDEngine was really a byproduct of doing that. "The dream of the company was actually never to make technology, it was to, yes, create visually and technically cutting-edge games," he adds. "But most importantly telling the stories in the most convincing and immersive way."

The incentive to switch came about when we got that The Matrix Awakens demonstration of Unreal Engine 5. At that point, the technology wasn't quite where CD Projekt Red would like, but Nowakowski and the rest of the company's leadership could see it was going to be formidable.

"If we form a relationship with Unreal and if we work on certain things which are specifically required to make games of the size and scope and certain technicalities about it that we need for the games, it could actually work," he recalls thinking. "And that's where we came to the table with the guys from Epic. That's where we made the strategic collaboration."

Now CD Projekt Red is one of the few developers helping to forge the engine from the inside. Which makes sense, since not only is it being used for The Witcher 4, it's behind the remaster of The Witcher 3 as well.

"We're actually, I think, the only team in the world outside of Epic that deals with the inside of the 'black box' that the engine is. Nobody else is doing that except for us and them, which we do through collaborative efforts together," he comments. We'll start seeing what improvements this all provides when The Witcher 3 Remastered arrives in just over a week.

The Witcher 3 "is not a monument" says lead writer ahead of Songs of the Past, which means "adding a new expansion is not such a huge deal."

No video game is perfect, regardless of how popular or enduring they are. The Witcher 3 is no exception, and on the back of the upcoming remaster, one lead developer makes it clear he'd revisit quite a bit of the massive RPG.

"For me, The Witcher 3 is not a monument and is not untouchable. It is still vivid in my memory, and it is still something that is not maybe a point of reference, but something that still may be improved," Marcin Blacha, lead writer on The Witcher 3 and now vice president of narration at CD Projekt Red, tells PC Gamer.

"When I'm playing The Witcher 3, I still find some places that I think maybe nowadays, I would do it differently."

I can understand this mentality. There's a lot to do in Wild Hunt, and since it's been over a decade, Blacha's now got the value of hindsight in what could've been more efficient or better.

Not only is the base game about to get a sizable lick of paint, but there's an expansion coming too, Songs of the Past. They provide a decent amount of changes and additions to the 11-year-old game between them, and Blacha found the whole process to be invigorating creatively.

"Adding a new expansion is not such a huge deal," he explains. "In fact, discovering we still have it, you know, we have this thing, and we are still able to create a story that fits not only vanilla Witcher 3 but also Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. It is still a very uplifting feeling – a time machine that brings me 10 years back, when I was younger and maybe more passionate and more enthusiastic."

To compound what he's talking about, the chain weapon Geralt uses in Songs of the Past was an idea for the base game the team couldn't figure out in time. It seems like the devs still have more to say in The Witcher 3, and more power to them for making good on those opportunities still.

And it helps that Songs of the Past will take the edge off waiting for The Witcher 4.

The Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion wouldn't be "possible" without the RPG's remaster, says CD Projekt Red: "The stars had to align."

Among the additions coming in the upcoming The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past DLC is a new kind of weapon for Geralt, a big old chain he uses to whip and lasso enemies. It's a cool, nifty piece of equipment, and something CD Projekt Red has had in its back pocket since making the original game, over a decade ago.

Two developers, Jakub Rokosz, game director on Songs of the Past, and Despoina Anetaki, senior quest designer at CDPR, discussed the subject with BBC News. "We were talking about implementing the chain even during the original The Witcher 3," Rokosz recalls.

"It was impossible to do at the time for various technological reasons and challenges," he continues. "A few things had to click together, and we were able to address those challenges and issues during the remaster, so then we were able to implement a weapon that feels just natural and very fluid."

He says it "realizes a fantasy" you may have if you've read the Witcher books, since Geralt wields a chain regularly in the novels from Andrzej Sapkowski. Further connectivity between the source material and the games is good to see, and having more combat options makes Songs of the Past even more appealing, since this is a real late-game addition.

Anetaki explained a little more about why it made sense to include the chain now. "It fits with the narrative theming of the Songs of the Past," she says. "It fits with all the new enemies that work with the chain. We were able to do crowd control with the swarmions, that swarm you and you have to keep them away from you."

She points out it's a "cool weapon" for people "who might be sick of the crossbow by now." More versatility is always welcome, and considering there are players who'll have put in hundreds of hours over the years, it's especially so here.

The Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion wouldn't be "possible" without the RPG's remaster, says CD Projekt Red: "The stars had to align."

A couple of weeks ago, Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 provided us with our first look at both The Witcher 3 Remastered and CD Projekt Red's brand-new expansion for the RPG, Songs of the Past – an expansion that wouldn't have happened without the remaster.

Or, at least, that's what CD Projekt Red says in a recent interview with BBC News over on YouTube.

As Jakub Rokosz, game director behind both The Witcher 3 and now Songs of the Past, recalls, "the stars had to align and the conditions had to be just right to make this [the new expansion] happen." And right they became, as "the story of Dandelion's past and homeland came into our spotlight" at the perfect time.

Right when "CD Projekt Red started talking to us about about doing it," other "work on the remaster" was underway – "and those two things are intertwined in a way that the realization of Letten, Dandelion's hometown, wouldn't be possible without the remaster upgrades."

As Rokosz concludes, "there are a few things that had to click together" to make Songs of the Past "possible." And, thankfully, those things did indeed click.

Considering the sheer scope of Songs of the Past, I'm honestly not too surprised to hear Rokosz say that The Witcher 3 Remastered was practically necessary to make the expansion work.

After all, the original RPG from CD Projekt Red launched way back in 2015, leaving over a decade of technological advancements between then and now. Plus, it sounds like the remaster will be quite the overhaul, also.

We've got everything from "improved combat" to massively reworked visuals to look forward to, at times making it sound more like a remake than a remaster, honestly.

It's one heck of an undertaking for developers, undoubtedly, anyway, considering all of the other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, too. Coupled with Songs of the Past – which Rokosz makes seem huge as well – we Witcher stans have a lot to be excited about.

After 20 years voicing Geralt, The Witcher 3 star Doug Cockle says revisiting his character for Songs of the Past is "like slipping into a warm bath"

Changes are coming in The Witcher 3 remaster and Songs of the Past, and your trusty steed, Roach, is among the areas where you might notice some alterations. The mighty horse definitely has a distinct personality in the original game, and aspects of that have been upgraded for this update and the Songs of the Past DLC - but you can turn that all off if you prefer.

In an interview with Fall Damage, Karolina Kuzia, the design director at Fool's Theory, the studio that helped make Songs of the Past, addressed whether Roach's bugs had been fixed. "When it comes to Roach and her shenanigans, why take something that is light?" she asks.

She then passes the question to her colleague, Miles Tost, the level design lead at CD Projekt Red, who elaborates. "I don't know of any Roach bugs, I think she's perfect," he says. "Having said that, one cool thing about the remaster update is that we have updates to Roach's movement behavior, so on that count, that may be disappointing to you."

Yes, that is a little disconcerting, because Roach is truly a singular equestrian companion, even if she has a tendency to get in doorways you need to get through and other impossible places. She's a mess, but she's our mess, and we've grown to love and accept her in all her multitudes.

CD Projekt Red anticipated this by adding a toggle for the older and newer behavioral patterns. "You can turn that off," Tost adds. "If you prefer legacy Roach, the way you have grown to know her, be my guest."

Be your guest I shall be, Mr. Tost. I do enjoy keeping some aspects like these in remasters, because they become indelible to my nostalgia. Roach reminds you you're in a big, goofy fantasy game, and in a world like Geralt's you need that sometimes.

After 20 years voicing Geralt, The Witcher 3 star Doug Cockle says revisiting his character for Songs of the Past is "like slipping into a warm bath"

If you're stressed about AI slop creeping its way into The Witcher 4, fear not, CD Projekt Red says it's still using humans as its primary means of developing games, even if robots are seemingly replacing people at an alarming rate everywhere else.

During CDPR's latest earnings call, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski was asked to explain the company's current approach to AI in game development, and he toed the line in a similar way to most executives from major studios. Essentially, he acknowledged the tech's usefulness in certain areas of development but rejected straight-up AI-generated games, which isn't a particularly hot take but is noteworthy coming from the co-head of a studio behind some of the most anticipated games on the horizon.

"AI is definitely becoming a thing in the games development as well. We are still predominantly using people and this is our plan, to make games where we're not walking away from that," says Nowakowski. "AI, if anything, is a tool like many others that's helping in places that can maybe become more helpful in the future but we're not planning to rely on AI making complete games."

Well, that's certainly a relief. Here I was worrying a piece of obscure AI-generated concept art would find its way into The Witcher 4; now I have to deal with the idea of completely AI-generated games, but thankfully Nowakowski made it clear CDPR draws an ethical line on atrocities like that. What other developers do with their games, however, is up to them.

"To be honest, especially with very complex games like ours, I don't even think this is the right or ethical path to follow, so whether this is true for the whole industry, I'm not the person to make those statements. I think everybody has to make those judgments on their own."

Ultimately, Nowakowski's current philosophy on AI in game development mirrors the most common sentiments expressed by video game executives across the board: it's largely fine if used to streamline processes as long as it doesn't make it into the final product. There's no telling whether that approach will change as the technology evolves, but for now we can rest easy knowing AI-generated Geralt only exists in our nightmares.

"It creates lesser games": Indie game studios are supposed to love generative AI, so why do the 25 devs I spoke to avoid it?

The Witcher 4 is in production – or, more specifically, "full-scale production," as developer CD Projekt Red put it back in 2024. The studio has offered the public only a few small, tantalizing glimpses at the upcoming RPG, but it's passing new internal development milestones all the time. Those kinds of things are just too technical to announce to the public.

With The Witcher 4 officially targeting a 2028 release, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski was asked about where the team is at in regard to key development milestones as part of a recent investor Q&A. "As we have stated quite a few times before, we're in the full production stage of The Witcher 4, which roughly means – in very broad strokes – that we know what kind of game we're making," Nowakowski says.

"Then it's filling the game with content and so on," he continues. "We're not going into specific details. There's a lot of milestones we have internally. There's a pickup of specific batches, pickup of specific milestones. So we're not announcing all of them because a lot of them are very technical, very internal, and actually wouldn't really mean a lot to the external audience."

For those of us who don't work within the halls of CD Projekt Red, The Witcher 4 has appeared in the form of an extended cinematic trailer, an open-world tech demo, and various statements from executives and developers just like this. The devs themselves would seemingly prefer to keep their heads down and stick to actually building the game.

"This is what is happening right now: the actual making of the game till its release date," Nowakowski says. "Every milestone is a moment for us to look at it and ponder where we are, how well we are progressing with the development. Is anything hindering us? Is there any iteration that is required? And so on."

CD Projekt has set a high bar for itself with one of the best RPGs ever made.

Last week, Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 provided us with our first look at both The Witcher 3 Remastered and CD Projekt Red's new expansion for the RPG, Songs of the Past.

The expansion marks the return of Geralt's voice actor, Doug Cockle, who is taking on the role of the game's silver-haired protagonist once more… a role he's now been familiar with for over 20 years, since the original Witcher game.

How does Cockle feel stepping back into Geralt's boots for Songs of the Past, though? Well, he tells GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026.

"It's always a thrill to step back into Geralt's shoes," Cockle admits. "He is a character I know very, very well, so it's always a pleasure to revisit him, and it has been for Songs of the Past as well."

It's comforting, too, as per the actor's words – sort of like… taking a hot bath at the end of a tough day, apparently? "I always describe it as like slipping into a warm bath," as Cockle puts it. "It's just very comfortable, very easy."

Acting is "still work," however, as he goes on to say – "but it's work that is very comfortable for me to to move back into, and it's always a pleasure." That makes sense.
After all, "I've been voicing Geralt since 2006, I think it is," Cockle recalls, "so over 20 years now, and as long as CDPR keeps asking me to come back…" he will. Yes, even if he's "like 80 years old," he'd still be willing to voice the beloved witcher.

John Schwab, voice of Dandelion, largely feels the same. He tells GamesRadar+ that he "got more excitement stepping into the booth because I was returning to the character."

So The Witcher RPG series is one its actors are not only comfy with at this point (and then some), but also one that they genuinely enjoy being a part of. As a fan myself, as much is made obvious by their observable talent.

Nobody was more surprised by The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past than Geralt and Dandelion's actors: "They announced the expansion pack before we knew what we were doing."

The Witcher 3 Remastered launches later this month as a free update for all existing owners of the RPG. It's a meaty update with a load of improvements, including freshly revamped combat. CD Projekt Red might even have been forgiven for treating it as an all-new game and charging existing Witcher 3 owners for the privilege of paying for it. But joint CEO Michał Nowakowski says that possibility was never even on the table.

"I don't think it was ever a thought we even had," Nowakowski tells The Game Business. "It was never a question we asked ourselves. The way we thought about it is like 'it's an improvement.'" CD Projekt has made a habit of offering massive, free updates for its previous games, notably including The Witcher 1 and Cyberpunk 2077.

Of course, the remaster is being subsidized in other ways: partly through a price hike for new buyers, and partly through sales of the upcoming Songs of the Past DLC. Nowakowski doesn't address the price increase, but he does say the expansion was always part of the calculation.

"We never thought about this way," Nowakowski says of charging for the remaster. "The commercial bit of it is the expansion, obviously. We really felt this is the CDPR way, to gift it to the players who already own it. Of course, if you haven't, then you will have to purchase the game from scratch. But then we tried to sweeten the deal for you by adding two expansions into the whole package. It was just never a question we asked ourselves, to be honest."

The remaster itself exists because of the work CD Projekt Red was doing with Fool's Theory on Songs of the Past, according to Nowakowski. "We started chatting, like 'why don't we make the game more modern? Everything feels like it was developed like 10 years ago.' That was really the beginning of the conversation," he explains.

"'What could we do to improve it?' It started with small things like 'maybe let's fix this,' 'maybe let's fix that,' and then it turned into this larger project," he says. "We suddenly realized we actually have a remaster on our hands."

Here are all the upcoming CD Projekt Red games you need to know about.

There was a peculiar vibe throughout Gamescom 2026's Opening Night Live showcase, pronounced by the fact that its biggest reveal, the dramatic climax of the whole event, was an update for an 11-year-old game. The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, DLC taking place after the events of the original game and the Blood and Wine expansion, was announced back in May but we got our first proper look at it during this year's Gamescom, and if you felt like it was the highlight of the show, some newly revealed Steam data backs that up.

Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, shared the top winners from Gamescom 2026 by Steam wishlists on Twitter, and The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past took the top spot by a pretty large margin. The DLC gained an estimated 451,000 wishlists between August 23, two days before Opening Night Live, and the end of the event on August 30.

The hype around The Witcher series is amplified by several major developments, including the DLC and the recently announced Witcher 3 remaster, and headlined by the upcoming sequel, The Witcher 4, which is "targeting" a 2028 release.

Warlock was another big hitter during the event and takes second place in Elliott's ranking with an estimated increase in Steam wishlists of 379,000. The next big D&D game to come after Baldur's Gate 3 showed off almost 10 minutes of gameplay, exploring a gritty RPG world and cast led by none other than Maggie Robertson, who you'll remember as Oren the Red in Baldur's Gate 3 and Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village.

Coming in at third place is the very anime open-world RPG Ananta, which gained an estimated 302,000 Steam wishlists during Gamescom week. The free-to-play game, which can reasonably be likened to an anime take on GTA, got a January 2027 release date during the show, and a new trailer showed off high-speed vehicle chases and vehicular combat as well as what appears to be some sort of flying mechanic. Frankly, it was a lot to take in even in the context of anime-inspired GTA-like games, which is already a wild concept.

The rest of the list, in order of most-to-least Steam wishlists gained during the event, includes Lego: Skylines (273,000), Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (189,000), Wardogs (146,000), Afterworld (121,000), Metro 2039 (110,000), and The Blood of Dawnwalker (108,000), which just launched to pretty great reviews.

The Witcher 3 Remastered won't scrap saves or achievements from the OG RPG as CD Projekt Red confirms it'll all carry over.

CD Projekt Red's games – think banger RPGs like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 – perform quite well on consoles… and even though such platforms have hit a bit of a wall costs-wise with the RAMpocalypse and what have you, the studio isn't worried.

Michał Nowakowski, joint CD Projekt Red CEO, explains as much in a new interview with The Game Business, describing how he believes console brands like Xbox and PlayStation will live on despite RAM shortage struggles and other roadblocks – and his own company's games' potential performance on such platforms in the future is not a concern at this point.

"I'm not worried," as Nowakowski says. "Consoles are still necessary to broaden the audience on the casual or semi-casual level. It's important to have easy to plug in and enjoy gaming."

I suppose he's right there. Although I'm more of a PC gamer myself, I can appreciate the moments I kick back to play on my Switch 2 for a change. It's a matter of convenience – and, yes, price… even if consoles are hiking their own price tags.

Regardless, Nowakowski doesn't see them going anywhere.

"I'm a big believer that they're going to weather the storm," he admits, going on to say he's aware of the "the objective challenge" that is pricing – and the rumors of next-gen consoles being delayed.

I mean, Sony's CEO couldn't give a release date for the PS6 last month, and the ongoing shortage of hardware components isn't helping settle consumers' concerns. But, does it really matter either way?

Nowakowski thinks not.

"How we reach gamers is a little irrelevant. Content is the king. And if the content is right, people will find a way to play it," the CD Projekt Red lead says. "When we launch, if PS5, Xbox Series X/S is what people are playing, we're going to be there. We're going to find a business model that’s going to work for us, that's going to be fine for players, and that's it."

Sounds pretty good, if you ask me… deliver to the players, wherever they may be.

"If the next-gen gets delayed, it could be the case that some ideas are put on a shelf for the future," Nowakowski concludes. "We'd have to adjust. We're not worried on the commercial side. Consoles are here to stay" – and, you know, something tells me he's right.

The Witcher 3 Remastered won't scrap saves or achievements from the OG RPG as CD Projekt Red confirms it'll all carry over

The video game industry is equal parts art and business, and convincing the business people in the industry to actually fund the artists is a never-ending struggle. (Just look at the furloughed devs behind the recently released Star Wars: Zero Company.) But CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski knows that some games – like The Witcher 4 and GTA 6 – can't be made by pinching pennies.

"We are cost-conscious," Nowakowski tells The Game Business. "It's not unimportant. We're a business in the end, so I would [be lying] if I said it doesn't matter how much the game costs. But the first thing is whether the quality we're meeting is there, period. Whether we're meeting the expectations of what the fans are expecting from the next installment of The Witcher. This is the dominant thing we look at."

The Witcher 4 certainly doesn't have an unlimited budget, and Nowakowski alludes to certain financial "boundaries" guiding the game's development. But he says cost is not the "number one position" in determining the production plan.

"But I definitely wouldn’t say this is a cost-driven development," he continues. "If you want to have a cost-driven development – and that’s proper business thinking for a lot of games – you cannot make a game like The Witcher 4. I doubt if the development of GTA 6 was a cost-driven development. In fact, I'm 100% sure it wasn't. I think the philosophy might be very similar in many ways."

CD Projekt Red has a lot to prove with its next big RPG. Even as Cyberpunk 2077's reputation has turned around thanks to a nonstop barrage of updates and improvements, the shadow of its very bad launch still lingers. But even Cyberpunk's untimely release was more of a result of dev burnout than financial pressure.

"The decision to launch was for sure wrong, period," Nowakowski admits. "There’s no denying it. But there's no easy answer, like some magical 'investors' or stuff like that. I read a lot of that on the internet, [that investors were] telling us 'you have to release now or else.' That was not the situation. It was much more complicated – much more psychological, I would even say."

The Witcher 4 probably isn't coming to PS5 with a physical disc, CD Projekt Red boss says, but fans will still get something to "open up and enjoy."

Despite releasing after Sony's physical game deadline, CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 4 will have a game box with something on PS5, even if it doesn't have a disc.

I'm sure we all know the story by now: Sony announced it would end physical disc production for PlayStation consoles in 2028, and everyone is upset and calling Sony out for its anti-consumer, anti-preservation moves. Meanwhile, Sony wants to remind people they don't own their games, with its lawyers offering the frankly ridiculous argument that no one thinks they own a digital game, because only one person could ever have it. While some devs – like Hideo Kojima – have publicly expressed concern, there's been word that many publishers are quietly unhappy with the decision.

This was then followed by the news that The Witcher 4 will release in 2028 if all goes to plan, and many put two and two together and concluded that this would put the massive RPG in the digital-only realm on PlayStation.

Speaking to The Game Business, CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski explains that the decision is out of its hands: "We know what PlayStation has announced. And we have no influence on the policies of the first parties. The discs for the first parties, including PlayStation, have to be manufactured in their own factories. So, if they stop manufacturing indeed by 2028, then yes [we won't have a disc]."

However, even if The Witcher 4 does not have a disc, Nowakowski pledges there will be something for physical-game fans. "We're big fans of people having access to tangible collectible things," he explains, "So, whatever is the case, we're going to be for sure having a box. We're going to have a box that's going to have some feelies in it. Something you're going to be wanting to open up and enjoy. But we have no influence actually on what's the case here."

CD Projekt Red is also one of the few third-party publishers that released a Nintendo Switch 2 game on an actual cartridge rather than a Game-Key Card, with Cyberpunk 2077 being the only launch game outside of Nintendo's own to be complete on the cart. And while it's currently digital-only, the studio has confirmed details of The Witcher 3 Remastered's Switch 2 physical edition are coming "when the time is right."

The Witcher 4 narrative lead also wanted Geralt as the protagonist at first, but he "will always have an important role"

Last week's Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 showcase saw the reveal of The Witcher 3 Remastered, a reworked take on CD Projekt Red's original 2015 RPG – and excited fans don't need to worry about losing their decade-old progress, apparently.

Developers reveal as much in a new post over on X, explaining that all of our saves from The Witcher 3 will, in fact, carry over to the remaster coming later this month.

"We've seen your questions about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered," it reads. "Good news: your current saves will work with the upgrade, so you can get back on the Path right where you left off."

Good news indeed, especially for those of us with hundreds of hours clocked in-game.

That's not all, either. Apparently, all of our unlocked achievements (or trophies, for all you PlayStation 5 enjoyers) will still be unlocked in The Witcher 3 Remastered – no need to spend ages grinding Gwent cards and the like again.

As CD Projekt Red says, "Your unlocked achievements and trophies will carry over too!" I'm thrilled, personally, and I'm evidently not alone, with folks commenting that this is "great to hear."

Some people, however, do wish they could redo it all – because of course they do. As various other replies highlight, a lot of fans want to "100%" The Witcher 3 once more… which makes sense, I suppose, when you consider just how good the original RPG is.

As grueling a task completing everything again might be, I can see why players would want to. Heck, I have nearly 1,000 hours in the game on PC alone myself.

Regarding what The Witcher 3 Remastered brings to the table that we've not yet seen, there's everything from "improved combat" to overhauled visuals to look forward to.

There's also CD Projekt Red's new DLC for the RPG, Songs of the Past, and, of course, The Witcher 4, to anticipate. It's a better time than ever to be a fan of the Polish studio's lineup of games, I'd say – I know I certainly am, and I can't wait for it all to release.

After avoiding game-key cards with Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 3 Remastered's Switch 2 physical edition details will come "when the time is right"

The Witcher 4's narrative lead Philipp Weber understands why some fans are having trouble letting go of Geralt in the spotlight. He, too, didn't want the iconic monster hunter to take a back seat in the upcoming game, but it's alright, because Geralt will apparently "always have an important role."

A loud contingent of fans upset that Ciri is taking over as the protagonist of The Witcher 4 have been making their displeasure very vocal online. Once a quest designer on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, Weber's now responded to one such fan.

"I understand that many people feel like this," he tweets in reply to a player calling for Geralt to take Ciri's place as The Witcher 4's lead. Weber even says he "felt like that at the start," so it's CD Projekt Red's "job to prove with W4 that Ciri will be a worthy main character for the game. We take that task very seriously!" And even if his gruff growl isn't front and centre the entire time, "Geralt will always have an important role."

Ciri's role as protagonist has been a hot debate ever since the upcoming CD Projekt Red game's first proper reveal. Engineering production manager Jan Hermanowicz previously told GamesRadar+ that fans should reserve their judgement for after they've actually played the sequel. "When the game will be out, you'll be able to see for yourself and fully embrace her character, her story," he said last year.

The Witcher 4 won't be ready until 2028, the developer recently clarified, but fans will have plenty to sink both their swords into until then. The Witcher 3 Remastered is coming out next month, and it's free for all existing owners, which should be a good appetizer for the Songs of the Past expansion launching next year.

"After all this time, we get to show you more of Songs of the Past, a story long in the making," Weber said of the long-awaited DLC. "Geralt's adventure in Letten contains so much of our and especially our good friends at Fool's Theory's love for the Witcher. And for all our original fans, that chain is for you!!!"

The Witcher 3 Remastered sees CD Projekt Red work with one of the RPG's most beloved modders to make his work "officially available in the game"

As part of CD Projekt Red's Gamescom 2026 offerings, we got a look at the upcoming The Witcher 3 Remastered, and especially the port for the Switch 2. After giving us plenty of insight on how the RPG will run on Nintendo's system, we got a little update on that coveted physical release - though it's not very exciting, I'm afraid.

CD Projekt tucked the little titbit into the back half of a dedicated presentation during the third day of the event. "The news will come when the time is right," the panel says, in response to a question about getting the game in tangible form.

Told you it wasn't very exciting. But such is the process of making physical games. They're collector's items now, and not entirely intended for mass production, and the company ducked out on going the game card route for Cyberpunk 2077. Most of the people who pick up The Witcher 3 Remastered on the latest Nintendo platform will be doing so digitally anyway, since this is how audiences have shifted.

I'm sure there are plenty of people internally at CD Projekt Red who advocate for owning games on discs and cartridges, but this is a game that's been out for over a decade now. Putting it on physical media on yet another platform just won't be top of the to-do list.

It's good to hear the possibility wasn't shot down - I would expect we'll hear something within a relatively short amount of time of Geralt of Rivia making his way onto the hybrid console. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered comes out on Switch September 29, which would make Christmas a sound window to get some cases and carts into stores.

Despite the RPG's age, this is just one of several ways CD Projekt Red is continuing to support it. There's brand new DLC coming next year, Songs of the Past, and that'll help link this installment up to The Witcher 4. Geralt's got plenty of work ahead of him, to say the least.

A month before The Witcher 3 Remastered, CD Projekt Red quietly raises the price of the Complete Edition on Steam

Days after announcing a remastered version of The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red has gone and silently bumped the price up of the Complete Edition on Steam.

A user on Resetera noticed the increase in the UK via SteamDB's price tracker graph, and I can verify that it has also went up $10 in the US, bringing it to $49.99.

The Witcher 3 Complete Edition comes with all the DLC expansion packs released for the game and will be upgraded to the Remastered version for free next month, but it's kind of a shady move to nudge the price after the news.

The price bump would be understandable given The Witcher 3 Remastered's visual and gameplay improvements. Applying that to the old game that's been around for years seemingly to capitalize on people picking it up for the first time, however, is a lame move by CD Projekt Red.

Over on GOG, the Complete Edition is actually 50% off. CD Projekt Red no longer owns the digital platform, but it would still be in charge of deciding where these prices get slashed. Even if the intent isn't to milk Steam users specifically, the discrepancy is confusing at the very least.

The Witcher 3 is a great game that is about to get even better with the Remastered version. I'd probably recommend it in a world where it never dropped in price. But games are expensive no matter how you look at it, and CD Projekt Red has historically prided itself on caring about its players, so I hope to see this reverted before too long.

The Witcher 3 Remastered tweaks combat "to be much more smooth and precise," as CD Projekt Red wants the 2015 RPG "to stand up to today's games"

Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy overlord Naoki Hamaguchi can't believe he got to share the Gamescom stage with his hero, Geralt of Rivia – in spirit, at least, since developer CD Projekt Red used Opening Night Live 2026 to announce its unexpected The Witcher 3 refresh and expansion. And The Witcher 4 lead level designer Miles Tost feels the same way.

"The pleasure was ours," Tost writes in an August 26 Twitter reply to Hamaguchi. "Final Fantasy, especially 7 have a special place in my heart and I'm so happy I get to relive that through your and your team's hard work!"

Originally, Hamaguchi wrote on Twitter after Opening Night Live (ONL), "Sharing the final spotlight at ONL alongside The Witcher 3, one of my favorite games of all time, was a truly special moment for me.
It was a great honor to stand on the same stage as a game that has inspired me for so many years."

It's rare that you see developers as seemingly untouchable as Square Enix's Hamaguchi show that, in the cocoon of their living rooms, they're still fans who feel that knot of excitement forming each time a certain title screen comes up. It's nice!

Hamaguchi has always been generous in sharing his love for The Witcher franchise, though, spending the past few years emphasizing that The Witcher 3 is one of his major Final Fantasy 7 remake inspirations. In 2024, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase even told fans that, while watching that year's Witcher 4 trailer at The Game Awards, "Hamaguchi was so excited when Ciri removed her hood, he almost stood up!"

So I'm especially glad for him to be at Gamescom this year, where he was also recently able to meet CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski and show him some of Square Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Hamaguchi says on Twitter about the experience, "It was a great honor to have Michał Nowakowski, Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT RED, stop by the Square Enix booth.

"Sharing the stage at ONL alongside The Witcher 3, one of my all-time favorite games, was already a special moment. Having Michał come by in person made it even more memorable.

"I was also very happy to tell him directly that The Witcher 3 continues to be one of the biggest inspirations for me as a game creator." Let us pray, now, for Hamaguchi's sake, that the new The Witcher 3 expansion Songs of the Past is just as sweet as he probably thinks it is when it launches in 2027.

Keep up with the entire Gamescom 2026 schedule.