CD Projekt Red at Gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live on August 25 announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, launching September 29 for GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The remaster brings improvements to visuals and combat, a "reimagined" skill tree, and includes the first two expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. It will be a free upgrade for players who already own the base game on any of the listed platforms, and marks The Witcher 3's debut on Nintendo Switch 2.
What Changed
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered follows the 2022 next-gen upgrade, which itself delivered significant visual and performance improvements over the 2015 original. CD Projekt said the new remaster adds further visual polish, redesigned combat, and a reimagined skill tree intended to make character progression more legible to new players without sacrificing the depth that defined the original. The studio did not detail specific technical changes such as resolution targets, frame-rate caps, or new ray-tracing features during the Gamescom reveal.
Franchise Context
The remaster is the first step in a multi-year Witcher push. CD Projekt is set to launch a brand-new Witcher 3 expansion titled Songs of the Past in 2027, and is aiming to release its next mainline Witcher game, The Witcher 4, in 2028. Co-CEO Michal Nowakowski earlier this week said more than 500 developers are working on The Witcher 4 RPG starring Ciri. Together, the remaster, the 2027 expansion, and the 2028 mainline release give the studio three Witcher product beats in roughly 24 months.
Other Gamescom Highlights
The Gamescom 2026 opening also featured a new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the third and final entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, releasing Spring 2027 for PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Square Enix showed the new Summon Typhon, open-world exploration via parachute, grappling hook, and Chocobo mounts, and the FITS outfit system that grants new abilities. Other major reveals included Gears of War: E-Day launching October 6, the open-world action RPG Exodus launching April 7, 2027, and 1666: Amsterdam entering early access with witchcraft-driven investigation gameplay.
What to Watch Through Year-End
Three checkpoints follow. The Witcher 3 Remastered's launch on September 29 and its performance on Switch 2 — a notoriously demanding handheld for open-world RPGs — will be the first real test of whether CD Projekt's remaster engineering can deliver on a constrained device. Pre-order and digital-sales data through Q4 2026 will indicate whether the remaster meaningfully expands the franchise's installed base ahead of Songs of the Past. And Square Enix's continued Final Fantasy VII Revelation marketing, expected at Tokyo Game Show in September, will reveal whether the trilogy's finale can match the sales cadence of Remake and Rebirth.
