CD Projekt Red made The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered a free upgrade for current Witcher 3 owners instead of charging them. The remaster launched September 29, 2026, and it costs existing players within the same platform ecosystem nothing at all. Both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine come included for owners.
The remark lands at a moment when the games industry has trained players to expect the opposite. Remasters and remakes routinely arrive as full-price purchases, even for people who already own the original. CD Projekt Red’s decision to skip that model entirely, and to say so bluntly in the press, has turned a routine platform-support announcement into a talking point about how publishers price legacy content in 2026.
Don't miss new tech stories on Google
Add Tech Insider once in the Google app and our stories appear in your news suggestions.
What Nowakowski Told The Game Business
According to Nintendo Life’s report, Nowakowski made the comment in an interview with the outlet The Game Business, discussing the studio’s approach to The Witcher 3 Remastered following its reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live in late August 2026. Nintendo Life describes the free-upgrade decision as one of the biggest surprises of that showcase, timed alongside a first look at the upcoming expansion Songs of the Past.
CD Projekt Red’s official announcement frames the release in plain terms. As the studio put it in its own news post, “Remastered – a free upgrade for existing The Witcher 3 owners on qualifying platforms – brings a slew of upgrades and enhancements to visuals, performance, gameplay, and more when it launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.” (CD Projekt Red)
That framing matters because it treats the remaster less as a new product and more as an extension of a game CD Projekt Red has now supported for eleven years. The company has leaned on this same logic before. When it shipped the prior next-gen update in 2022, CD Projekt Red told its own forums plainly that “the next-gen update is free for everyone who already owns any version of the game.” (CD Projekt Red forums) The 2026 remaster extends that same no-upcharge policy to a much larger technical overhaul.
The Free Upgrade, Platform by Platform
Reporting from Reuters confirms the scope of the offer: “The remastered version will be available as a free upgrade to all owners of the original game on GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.” (PC Gamer) That covers every major PC storefront and both current-generation consoles, without a separate SKU or upgrade fee for people who bought the game at any point over the past decade.
Nintendo Switch owners get a slightly different but equally generous path. Players who own The Witcher 3 on the original Switch can claim The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Remastered on Nintendo Switch 2 for free, including people who bought physical copies of the original release. CD Projekt Red’s official announcement covers GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, all available from the September 29, 2026 launch. The policy is the same across platforms: owners get the upgrade free within the same platform ecosystem, and Switch owners claim the Switch 2 version.
PC Gamer’s coverage of the Gamescom reveal summed up the pitch in a single line: “The Witcher 3 Remastered is coming September 29 as a free update for all owners of the RPG.” (PC Gamer) The message from CD Projekt Red has been consistent across every platform and every outlet that has covered it since the announcement.
Witcher 3 Remastered Upgrade Eligibility by Platform
| Platform | Upgrade Cost | Eligibility | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC – Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store | Free | Any existing owner | Requires meeting new minimum PC specs |
| PlayStation 5 | Free | Any existing PS5 owner | Native upgrade path confirmed by CDPR |
| Xbox Series X|S | Free | Any existing Xbox owner | Native upgrade path confirmed by CDPR |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | Free | Owners of original Switch version | Includes physical-copy owners, per CDPR |
| Battle.net | Free upgrade | Existing owners within the same platform ecosystem | Confirmed as a launch platform by CDPR |
Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine Included at No Cost
CD Projekt Red didn’t stop at the base game. Both expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, are being folded into the remaster and made free for every existing base-game owner, not just people who already bought the expansions separately. CD Projekt Red’s own news post states that “all owners of The Witcher 3 can now play the two acclaimed expansions – Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine – at no additional cost.” (CD Projekt Red)
That detail is arguably the more generous of the two announcements. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine were sold as paid downloadable content when they launched in 2015 and 2016, and together they represent tens of hours of additional story content that reviewers at the time rated on par with, or above, many standalone releases. Handing that content out for free to anyone who owns the base game, remaster or not, removes one of the last remaining reasons to pay extra for a complete Witcher 3 experience.
Release Date and the Gamescom Reveal
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launched on September 29, 2026, a date confirmed by CD Projekt Red’s own announcement and repeated across coverage. The reveal itself happened during Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 26, 2026, the industry showcase hosted by Geoff Keighley that has become a fixture for major publisher announcements each summer. Platforms include PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
The timing puts the remaster roughly eleven years after The Witcher 3’s original 2015 launch and just under four years after CD Projekt Red’s prior free next-gen update shipped in December 2022. That cadence, two major free technical overhauls in under four years, is unusual for a single-player game this old, and it’s a big part of why the “never a question” framing from CD Projekt Red’s CEO resonated with outlets covering the story.
The PC Fine Print: Windows 11, SSD, and a Higher Spec Floor
The upgrade is free, but it isn’t unconditional on PC. Reports on the remaster’s requirements point to a meaningfully higher spec floor than the original 2015 release or even the 2022 next-gen update needed. TechTimes reported in August 2026 that the minimum spec sheet calls for a jump to Windows 11, DirectX 12, a mandatory SSD, roughly 12 GB of system RAM, and a GPU in the range of an Nvidia GTX 1660 or AMD RX 5500 XT as the practical floor for running the remastered build.
That’s not a cost in dollars, but it is a real cost for players still running Windows 10 machines, hard disk drives, or older GPUs bought before 2019. Those players technically qualify for a free upgrade they may not be able to install. It’s a detail that separates “free” from “free and frictionless,” and it’s worth factoring in for anyone planning to revisit the game on aging hardware around the September 29 launch.
How Witcher 3 Remastered Pricing Compares to Recent Remasters
CD Projekt Red’s approach stands out because it breaks from a pattern that’s become standard across the industry over the past five years. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition launched in 2021 at $59.99, with no discount or free-upgrade path offered to people who already owned the three original games it remastered, according to reporting at the time. (Kotaku)
Sony’s approach to The Last of Us Part I told a similar story. GamesRadar reported that the 2022 PS5 remake retailed at $69.99 for the standard edition, with higher-priced deluxe tiers on top, and that owners of either the original 2013 release or its 2014 remastered edition were not offered a next-gen upgrade path. GamesRadar’s headline at the time captured the fan reaction directly: some players called the pricing “a slap in the face.” (GamesRadar) Set against that backdrop, a studio flatly telling reporters that charging existing owners “never entered the developers’ minds” reads as a pointed contrast, whether or not that was CD Projekt Red’s intention.
Remaster Pricing Compared: Witcher 3 vs GTA Trilogy vs Last of Us Part I
| Title | Year | Price for Existing Owners | Free Bonus Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered | 2026 | Free | Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine included free |
| GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition | 2021 | $59.99, no owner discount reported | None reported |
| The Last of Us Part I | 2022 | $69.99 standard edition, no upgrade path | None reported |
The Complete Edition Price Jump New Buyers Are Seeing
The free-upgrade story does have a wrinkle for people who don’t already own the game. ShaneTheGamer reported that The Witcher 3 Complete Edition jumped to $49.99 on Steam in late August 2026, just days after CD Projekt Red confirmed the free remaster at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live. The outlet noted the standalone base game also disappeared from Steam’s store page around the same time, leaving the Complete Edition bundle as the primary way to buy in. (ShaneTheGamer)
Crucially, that price increase doesn’t touch anyone who already owns the game in any form. Existing owners aren’t affected, and anyone buying now gets both expansions plus The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Remastered, which launched on September 29, 2026, in a single purchase. Still, the timing, a price hike landing within days of a promise that existing players would not be charged, is the kind of detail that critics of the announcement have seized on, even if it applies to a different group of buyers entirely. As of October 24, 2026, the upgrade is officially free for existing owners within the same platform ecosystem, and the Remastered release includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
There’s also a workaround worth noting for budget-conscious new buyers. Reporting from Gagadget pointed out that pre-owned physical or key-resale copies of the original Witcher 3 base game have been circulating for roughly $5 to $7, meaning a buyer could theoretically pick up a secondhand copy at a steep discount and still qualify for the free remaster and both free expansions, now that the remaster has launched on September 29, 2026.
Why CD Projekt Red Is Playing This Differently After Cyberpunk 2077
None of this is happening in a vacuum. CD Projekt Red spent much of 2021 and 2022 repairing its reputation after Cyberpunk 2077’s troubled 2020 launch, which drew refund demands, a PlayStation Store delisting, and a wave of criticism over performance on last-gen consoles. The studio has since rebuilt significant goodwill through years of free post-launch support for both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, including the 2022 next-gen update that, as CD Projekt Red itself said at the time, was free for everyone who already owned any version of the game.
Framed against that history, a free Witcher 3 remaster looks less like an isolated act of generosity and more like a continuation of a rebuilding strategy the studio has been running for several years. Notebookcheck’s coverage of the announcement captured the general public reaction well, describing fans who went looking for a hidden fee or a catch and, in the outlet’s words, “can’t find one.” (Notebookcheck) That reaction, mild disbelief rather than celebration, says something about how normalized paid remasters have become across the rest of the industry.
Market Impact: What This Means for CD Projekt Red’s Business
Giving away a remaster doesn’t generate direct revenue from millions of existing owners, and that’s worth stating plainly: this is not a monetization play in the traditional sense. The commercial logic works differently. A free, technically overhauled Witcher 3 keeps the game visible in storefront charts and social feeds right as CD Projekt Red is building anticipation for Songs of the Past, the new expansion previewed at the same Gamescom showcase and planned for launch in 2027, and ahead of the studio’s next major original title.
There’s also a new-buyer funnel at work. The Complete Edition price increase to $49.99 on Steam suggests CD Projekt Red is comfortable raising the entry price for newcomers precisely because it can point to a free remaster, two free expansions, and forthcoming new content as the value proposition. In effect, existing owners become a marketing asset, an enormous base of players who will re-download and replay the game for free right as new content around it ships, while new buyers pay a premium to join in.
Historical Context: A Long History of The Witcher 3 Updates
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt originally launched in May 2015 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Its two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, followed later that year and in 2016 respectively, both as paid downloadable content at the time. The game later received a free next-gen update in December 2022, bringing it to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S with visual and performance improvements, at no cost to existing owners, according to CD Projekt Red’s own forum announcement from that period.
The 2026 remaster is the third major technical pass CD Projekt Red has given the game since its original release, following the base launch and the 2022 next-gen update. Each of those milestones has come without an additional charge to people who already owned the game, a pattern that’s now spanned more than a decade and that CD Projekt Red’s leadership has repeatedly pointed to when explaining decisions like this one.
What Industry Watchers Are Saying
Reporters covering the announcement have converged on a similar read: this is unusual, and it’s meant to be noticed. PC Gamer’s framing of the remaster as “another huge free update” echoes language the outlet has used for CD Projekt Red’s prior Witcher 3 support cycles, treating the free-upgrade decision as consistent with the studio’s established playbook rather than a one-off gesture.
GamesRadar’s coverage took a more practical angle, focusing on the cheapest way for new players to get in the door given the Complete Edition price change, rather than questioning the free-upgrade policy itself. That split in coverage, some outlets marveling at the generosity, others focused on the fine print for new buyers, is a fair summary of how the story has been received across gaming media since the Gamescom reveal.
Predictions: Where Remaster Pricing Goes From Here
- Expect other publishers with long-tail catalog titles to face direct comparisons to CD Projekt Red’s approach the next time they announce a paid remaster, especially if that title already has a large installed base of owners.
- CD Projekt Red is likely to keep leaning on “free support for existing owners” as a marketing pillar for its next original release, given how consistently the studio has repeated that message since the Cyberpunk 2077 recovery period.
- The Complete Edition price increase on Steam suggests other storefronts, including console digital stores, could see similar entry-price adjustments for new buyers now that the remaster has launched on September 29, 2026.
- PC players on older hardware will likely generate a second wave of coverage now that the remaster is out, as more people discover the Windows 11 and SSD requirements gate them out of a technically free upgrade.
- Expect renewed scrutiny of GTA Trilogy-style and Last of Us Part I-style pricing models industry-wide, as journalists and players use the Witcher 3 Remastered announcement as a reference point in future remaster debates.
What Existing Owners Should Do Now That the Remaster Has Launched
For most players, there’s little to actively do. The upgrade is expected to apply automatically to qualifying library entries on Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, based on how CD Projekt Red rolled out the 2022 next-gen update using the same no-action-required model. CD Projekt Red has already followed the launch with post-release maintenance, pushing the remaster to patch version 5.01 in October 2026 according to The Witcher’s official site, so existing owners should confirm their client is set to auto-update to pick up those fixes. Switch owners planning to move to Switch 2 should keep their original Switch copy, physical or digital, linked to the account they intend to use going forward, since that ownership record is what CD Projekt Red has said determines eligibility for the free Switch 2 version.
PC players on older hardware have the most homework. Anyone unsure whether their rig clears the reported Windows 11, SSD, and GPU requirements should check their system specs before downloading the remaster, which launched September 29, 2026, since falling short doesn’t cost anything extra, but it does mean sitting out the remaster entirely on the affected machine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to pay for The Witcher 3 Remastered if I already own the game?
No. CD Projekt Red has confirmed the remaster is a free upgrade for existing owners on PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and for original Switch owners moving to the Switch 2 version.
When does The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launch?
September 29, 2026, according to CD Projekt Red’s official announcement and confirmed across multiple outlets including PC Gamer and GamesRadar.
Are the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions included for free too?
Yes. CD Projekt Red says all current base-game owners get both expansions at no additional cost, and both are bundled into the remastered base game going forward.
Why did CD Projekt Red’s CEO say charging owners was never considered?
Speaking to The Game Business, as reported by Nintendo Life, CEO Michał Nowakowski described the free-upgrade decision as consistent with the studio’s long-standing approach to post-launch support, which has included prior free updates like the December 2022 next-gen version of The Witcher 3.
Do I need a new PC to run the remaster?
Not necessarily new, but reported minimum specs include Windows 11, DirectX 12, an SSD, roughly 12 GB of RAM, and a GPU around the level of an Nvidia GTX 1660 or AMD RX 5500 XT. Machines below that floor may not run the remastered build even though the upgrade itself is free.
Why did The Witcher 3 Complete Edition get more expensive on Steam?
ShaneTheGamer reported the Complete Edition rose to $49.99 on Steam in late August 2026, shortly after the free remaster was confirmed. The change affects new buyers only; people who already own the game in any form are not charged anything for the upgrade.
How does this compare to how other studios handle remasters?
It’s a departure from recent industry norms. GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition launched at $59.99 in 2021 with no reported discount for existing owners, and The Last of Us Part I launched at $69.99 in 2022 without a next-gen upgrade path for people who owned earlier versions.
Can I still get The Witcher 3 cheaply now that the remaster is out?
Reports point to secondhand or resale copies of the base game circulating for roughly $5 to $7, which would still qualify a buyer for the free remaster and both free expansions, released on September 29, 2026.
