CD Projekt Red announced it at gamescom 2026 as a free update for owners, launching September 29, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

This is not a new main story. It is the original campaign plus Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, rebuilt with modern combat, systems, lighting, and platform features. The new story expansion, Songs of the Past, is separate and arrives in 2027.

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Ownership, Expansions, and Platforms

  • Free upgrade to Remastered for existing owners on qualifying platforms.
  • Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine unlocked for free if you only owned the base game.
  • New copies include both older expansions.
  • Xbox Play Anywhere support across Xbox Series consoles, PC, and supported handhelds.
  • PlayStation 5 Pro support.
  • Native Nintendo Switch 2 version with exclusive features. CDPR has not fully detailed those exclusives yet.
  • Native DirectX 12 on PC.

The heaviest rendering features (path tracing, ray reconstruction, and ray-traced hair) are PC-focused. Consoles get the gameplay, camera, skill, and visual modernization, plus hardware-specific modes.

Combat, Movement, and Animation

CDPR is treating this as a feel update, not just a coat of paint. Level design lead Miles Tost said combat is meant to be more modern, smooth, and precise, with an updated camera, targeting, new animations, and new finishers.

  • Enhanced combat responsiveness and targeting.
  • Adaptive camera that sits closer to the action during fights.
  • Refined animations, including smoother gap-closing in melee.
  • New finishers, including an Aard-based finishing move shown in the trailer.
  • New Witcher Signs visual effects.
  • Improved traversal and general movement.
  • Revamped mount handling for Roach.
  • Enhanced monster behavior.

RPG Systems and Quality of Life

The biggest non-visual change is the skill system. The trees have been redesigned, existing skills have been reworked, and new perks and abilities have been added so builds are more flexible.

  • Revamped skill tree with new and reworked abilities.
  • Transmogrification for weapons and armor, so looks no longer have to lose to stats.
  • Immersive meditation.
  • New quest tracking.
  • UI improvements and improved menu navigation.
  • Looting rework.
  • Tutorial modernization.
  • New accessibility features.
  • Expanded photo mode with more poses, camera controls, frames, filters, and models.
  • Cross-platform mod support, including Xbox Series X|S. CDPR is pitching custom quests, weapons, equipment, and balance changes on consoles as well as PC.

Visuals, Lighting, and PC Tech

The remaster goes beyond the 2022 ray tracing pass. CDPR is replacing much of the lighting and material stack rather than only turning existing effects up.

  • Updated textures and overall visual upgrade.
  • Foliage shading rework.
  • Global lighting rework.
  • New shading model.
  • Subsurface scattering.
  • Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion (GTAO).
  • Improved ray tracing.
  • Ray-traced hair.
  • Path tracing on PC.
  • Ray Reconstruction on PC.
  • New tone mapper.
  • HDR improvements.
  • Refreshed motion blur.
  • Rendering parallelization for better use of modern CPUs.
  • NVIDIA DLSS 4.5.
  • AMD FSR 4.
  • Intel XeSS 2.0.

The 2022 update already added ray-traced global illumination, ambient occlusion, some reflections and shadows, Ultra+ settings, DLSS 3, and FSR 2. Remastered stacks a second leap on top: path tracing, newer upscalers, a new shading model, and ray-traced hair.