CD Projekt Red’s joint CEO says the studio never considered charging existing owners for The Witcher 3 Remastered

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered was never planned as a paid upgrade for players who already owned the game. Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski says the studio did not seriously consider charging existing owners because the project evolved naturally from efforts to modernize the decade-old RPG.

The comments came during an interview with The Game Business. The remastered version is scheduled to launch on September 29, 2026, with upgraded visuals, performance, gameplay features and a native Nintendo Switch 2 version.

Why The Witcher 3 Remastered became a free upgrade

According to Nowakowski, the remaster began while CD Projekt Red was working with Fool’s Theory on Songs of the Past, the upcoming third expansion for The Witcher 3. Discussions about modernizing the older game gradually expanded until the team realized it had effectively created a much larger remaster project.

When asked whether CD Projekt Red ever considered selling the remaster separately to existing owners, Nowakowski gave a straightforward answer:

“It was never a question we asked ourselves.”

He explained that the team saw the project differently from a conventional commercial release.

“We really felt this is the CDPR way to gift it to the players who already own it,”

Nowakowski said, making clear that charging existing players for the upgraded version was not part of the studio’s plans.

CD Projekt Red has followed a similar approach with previous major upgrades to The Witcher 3. The game’s 2022 next-generation edition was also offered as a free update to existing owners on supported platforms.

The commercial opportunity instead comes from Songs of the Past, which will be released as a paid expansion in 2027. The new adventure returns Geralt of Rivia to the spotlight more than a decade after The Witcher 3 originally launched.

The remaster itself will arrive on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 on September 29. Existing owners on qualifying platforms will receive the upgrade at no additional cost.