The Witcher 3 Remastered Unlocks at 10am UTC on 29 September as a 45GB Free Update

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered unlocks on Tuesday 29 September 2026 at 10:00 UTC (11am BST, 6am EDT, 3am PDT) on every platform, according to the release times reported by GamesRadar+ and Push Square. It is not a separate game: CD Projekt Red announced on 25 August that Remastered is a free upgrade for everyone who already owns The Witcher 3 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

This article is built on CD Projekt Red's announcement and official FAQ, the Steam store page (checked on 28 September at 06:35 UTC) and launch details reported by Push Square, GamesRadar+ and GamingBolt. CD Projekt Red's posts on X with the exact times and file sizes could not be loaded for verification, so those two details are credited to the outlets that reported them.

When does The Witcher 3 Remastered unlock in your time zone?

The update goes live at the same moment worldwide, which puts the Americas in the early morning and Asia-Pacific in the evening. New Zealand moved to daylight saving time on 27 September, so the unlock there is 11pm rather than 10pm, while eastern Australia is still on standard time until early October.

How big is the download?

Remastered arrives as a patch to the existing Complete Edition, and it is a big one. CD Projekt Red's Marcin Momot gave approximate sizes for each platform on X, as reported by GamingBolt and Push Square. The PC figure varies with the language packs you have installed.

None of the sources we checked mentions a pre-load, so plan for the download to start at the unlock time. If your console is short on space, clearing room today will save you a wait tomorrow.

Who gets Remastered for free?

Anyone who owns The Witcher 3 on GOG, Steam, the Epic Games Store, PS5 or Xbox Series X|S gets the upgrade at no cost, as CD Projekt Red also confirmed in its Steam announcement. Battle.net and Switch 2 were listed for pre-purchase, and owners of the original Switch version can claim the Switch 2 edition for free once it releases.

PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are not getting Remastered. On those consoles, the official FAQ says the only change is that Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now free to download. Everywhere else, both expansions have been folded into the base game since 25 August, the standalone base game has been replaced by the Complete Edition, and existing saves, cross-progression, achievements and trophies carry over.

What changes in Remastered?

CD Projekt Red lists reworked lighting and ray tracing, new environment, NPC and monster textures, revamped combat animations with new finishers and an adaptive camera, an overhauled skill tree, transmogrification, an expanded photo mode, immersive meditation and cross-platform mod support. The skill tree is the change most likely to matter for a save in progress: the FAQ confirms saves stay compatible, but it does not explain how points spent in the old tree will be handled.

Should you buy The Witcher 3 now?

If you don't own it, the timing works in your favour. On Steam, the Complete Edition is 50% off at $24.99 (£19.99 in the UK) until 1 October, and it already includes both expansions and tomorrow's upgrade. It holds an Overwhelmingly Positive rating from 889,402 user reviews, 97% of them positive. Push Square reports a matching 50% discount on the PlayStation Store.

At 06:35 UTC on 28 September, 6,455 people were playing the Steam version. That is a useful baseline for judging how big a launch-day spike the remaster produces for an eleven-year-old game.

What we don't know yet

Performance on PC and Switch 2 has not been independently measured yet, and critics' verdicts on the remaster had not been published when we checked. The new expansion, Songs of the Past, is still only dated to 2027. Everything else we publish on the game lives on our Witcher 3 hub.