These are big days for The Witcher 3: It's not only getting a full-on story expansion in 2027, a remaster of the base game is also coming later this month. Even better, anyone who owns the original Witcher 3 will get the remaster for free. That's pretty generous as these things go, but in an interview with The Game Business, CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said there was never any thought of doing it differently.
"It was never a question we asked ourselves," Nowakowski said. "We were going deeper into the development of Songs of the Past with Fool's Theory, and we started chatting: 'Why don't we make the game more modern? Everything felt like it was developed 10 years ago.' Because it was developed more than 10 years ago.
"We started chatting about what we could do to improve it. It started with small things and then it turned into this larger project, and we suddenly realized we had a remaster on our hands."
There's little doubt that existing Witcher 3 owners would've been willing to pony up for a modernized version of the game, especially with a new expansion on the way, but "we never thought about it this way," Nowakowski said. The Songs of the Past expansion is where CD Projekt will make money, but as far as the remaster goes, "we really felt this is the CDPR way to gift it to the players who already own it. It was just never a question we asked ourselves.”
CD Projekt doesn't exactly need the money—the company shared its H1 financials today, which saw revenues up nearly 25% over the same period in 2025 and an even bigger bump in profits from ongoing operation—but even so it's a nice move, particularly given that the remaster will include the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions, making them free for anyone who only has the base game.
Full details on the remaster haven't been shared yet, but based on what we do know it sounds extensive, covering everything from visual improvements to "enhanced combat" and new finishers, new monster behaviors, a revamped skill tree, and my personal favorite, "immersive meditation." It's set to go live on September 29, and will replace The Witcher 3: Complete Edition on digital storefronts.
