The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — RemasteredAnnouncement week
Witcher 3 Remastered FAQ collects the eight announcement-week questions that keep landing on the same three mix-ups: 2015 original versus 2022 Next-Gen versus 2026 Remastered, free upgrade versus new purchase, and Remastered versus Songs of the Past. Answers stay inside first-party dates and store identities. Open one leaf at a time. The Next-Gen leaf names 14 December 2022 and says not to treat 2022 notes as 2026 content.
Claim
Method
Every answer above is limited to platforms and dates CDPR, Steam, Nintendo or Xbox actually published in the announcement window. If your question is about PS4 disc upgrades beyond Xbox Wire's Xbox One expansion grant, the captured copy does not finish the matrix. If your question is about Switch 2 exclusive features, CDPR has not itemised them. Those gaps stay gaps rather than trailer inferences.
The checklist on this page is the same six paths as the free-upgrade folio. Checking a row stores w3-upgrade-checks in this browser and restores CHECKED N/6 after reload. It is a personal tally, not a CDPR entitlement API. Use it to remember which storefront you actually own.
The fiend still and the Yennefer still are Next-Gen gallery shots used beside combat and character questions. They are 2022-era Complete Edition art. They are not Remastered captures and they are not Letten.
14 Dec 2022
Open the first FAQ leaf, then open the Next-Gen question: only one leaf stays open. The Next-Gen answer names 14 December 2022 and tells you not to treat 2022 notes as 2026 content. That is the whole site in one click. Ray tracing, photo mode and Netflix-inspired extras are 2022. Combat, Signs, transmog, Switch 2 and Battle.net are 2026.
If you already installed Complete Edition in 2022, you still get Remastered on a qualifying platform in 2026. The second overhaul does not charge you for having taken the first. It also does not mean you already have Remastered on 14 December 2022 copies without the September 2026 client.
When a friend pastes a 2022 screenshot as proof of Remastered lighting, send them the Next-Gen leaf and the trailer chapter list. The Yennefer plate here is the same class of 2022 still.
Q&A
On GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, CD PROJEKT RED says yes — it is a free upgrade on 29 September 2026. Nintendo Switch owners claim a separate Switch 2 download with its own Home-menu icon rather than a patch to the Switch 1 cartridge. Battle.net is a new storefront for people who do not already own a qualifying copy. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are granted to current base-game owners and ship with Remastered.
No. The Next-Gen Update launched 14 December 2022 with ray-traced modes, photo mode and Netflix-inspired extras on the Complete Edition SKU. Remastered is a 2026 overhaul, announced 25 August 2026, that also changes combat, skills, traversal, Signs, mounts, monster behaviour and platforms, and it adds Switch 2 plus Battle.net. Do not treat 2022 patch notes as 2026 new content. Photo mode in Remastered expands the 2022 tool; it does not invent it.
No. Songs of the Past is a separate paid 2027 expansion, Steam DLC 5006530, set in Letten and co-developed with Fool's Theory. CDPR announced it on 27 May 2026, before the Remastered gamescom reveal. Remastered does not contain that expansion. Wishlist 5006530 if you want Letten; claim 292030 if you want the 29 September overhaul.
CDPR and Steam say current base-game owners receive both expansions free from announcement day, and both ship with Remastered. Xbox Wire says Xbox One base-game owners are included: digital copies appear in the library and disc owners claim them from the Store. Hearts of Stone remains the October 2015 expansion; Blood and Wine remains May 2016. Neither is Songs of the Past.
Nintendo's eShop says Switch owners can claim The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered free on Switch 2 as a separate download and Home-menu icon. Nintendo Life quotes that notice. It is not described as a patch to the Switch 1 cartridge. New Switch 2 buyers without a Switch 1 copy purchase or pre-order Remastered. Switch 2 quality modes are unpublished.
CDPR, Steam, Nintendo and Xbox have not published a performance-mode table before launch. Trailer footage is not a spec sheet. IGN mentions PlayStation 5 Pro support and unnamed Switch 2 exclusives without a CDPR list. Steam only notes that PC system requirements will change on 2026.09.29. This site will not invent fps, resolution presets, or load times.
CDPR announced a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to sell Remastered and Songs of the Past on Battle.net from 29 September 2026. That storefront is a new PC aisle, not an upgrade of an old Battle.net Wild Hunt license, because no such license existed. Buyers of Songs of the Past on Battle.net unlock a Geralt-inspired Diablo 4 skin, with more detail promised at BlizzCon in September.
Not as of this research. Steam still sells app 292030 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition and describes a free upgrade to Remastered on 29 September 2026. Songs of the Past is the other Steam entity, app 5006530. Nintendo's Switch 2 eShop listing is the captured storefront whose display name is already Remastered. Do not wait for a second Steam appid before claiming the upgrade on 292030.
Related pages: Free upgrade paths · What Remastered is · Songs of the Past