CD Projekt Red launches free Witcher 3 remaster, teases 2027 'Songs of the Past' expansion

CD Projekt Red launched The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered on Tuesday as a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms, while also confirming that a new full expansion, Songs of the Past, is due in 2027.

The one-two announcement turns an already prominent rerelease into something larger: a major new content plan for one of the biggest role-playing games of the last decade. More than 11 years after The Witcher 3 first arrived in May 2015, CD Projekt Red is not just refreshing the game for current hardware, but adding its first new full expansion since 2016.

In a press release, the Polish game developer described the remaster as “a free upgrade for existing The Witcher 3 owners on qualifying platforms.” CD Projekt Red said it is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The company also said a native Nintendo Switch 2 version is planned for Sept. 29, 2026, and that the remaster is also being distributed on Battle.net through a new partnership with Blizzard.

The remaster includes enhanced visuals and a long list of gameplay changes. CD Projekt Red said players can expect combat and traversal updates, new Witcher sign effects, a revamped skill tree, improved mount handling and monster behaviors, transmogrification, an expanded photo mode, new finishers, and broader performance and platform optimizations.

CD Projekt Red also said all current owners of The Witcher 3 will get access to the original expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, at no additional cost.

The bigger long-term announcement may be The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past, a new expansion set for 2027. CD Projekt Red said the add-on is being co-developed with Fool’s Theory and described it as a “full-fledged” expansion, publicly comparing its scope to Blood and Wine, the fan-favorite 2016 add-on.

The expansion is set in a new region called Letten, which CD Projekt Red describes as an idyllic rural area hiding a dark secret. The studio said the expansion will include new enemies, a new weapon called a hooked chain, and new abilities and mutagens for Geralt, the monster hunter who leads The Witcher 3.

That makes Songs of the Past the first new full expansion for the game since Blood and Wine launched in 2016. It also positions the remaster as part of a wider franchise rollout rather than a standalone nostalgia play.

The Witcher 3 remains one of the industry’s biggest RPGs, with more than 65 million copies sold, according to CD Projekt investor materials. Earlier this year, Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said Songs of the Past would serve as the game’s third full expansion and as a return to Geralt ahead of The Witcher 4, which CD Projekt Red has publicly targeted for 2028.

The result is a clear Witcher roadmap: remaster in 2026, expansion in 2027, and the next mainline game after that. For a title first released in 2015, that is an unusually ambitious second life.

“It is with great pleasure that I can confirm we are working on Songs of the Past,” Nowakowski said in investor materials. “The return of Geralt after more than one decade will be an excellent adventure, and a trip down memory lane, before we pass the baton to Ciri in the upcoming The Witcher 4.”