Gamescom 2026 is in full swing, and there's already a bunch of big wins emerging for Xbox.
My Gears of War: E-Day campaign preview just went live (and it looks amazing), a metric ton of Gamescom titles just got revealed for Xbox, and we have even more goodies being announced throughout the week (stay tuned for tomorrow ...). But, here's a personal big win that I'm very excited about.
The Witcher 3 is inarguably one of the best games ever made, and it's getting a big remaster version on September 29, 2026, and is also COMPLETELY FREE for users who own the existing game.
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"Remastered is a free upgrade for players who own The Witcher 3 on GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and includes both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions. It is also available for pre-purchase on Battle.net and Nintendo Switch 2."
Furthermore, CD Projekt RED revealed in the small print that it also grabs Xbox Play Anywhere support, finally bridging the gap between Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Ally versions. It'll also get FSR 4.0 support on the Xbox Ally X, giving it massively improved performance.
Here's just some of the changes you can expect in the free update:
- Improved combat flow, with new finishing moves and skills.
- Boosted traversal with more intelligent and dynamic vaulting, platforming, etc.
- Overhauled visuals, with improved lighting and spell effects.
- Improved monster AI, giving them new moves of their own.
- Revamped horse riding.
- A complete Cyberpunk 2077-style overhaul of the skill tree.
- Armor transmogrification.
- Improved photo mode.
- A variety of other smaller enhancements, such as boosted looting systems, UI interactions, tutorial modernization, HDR improvements, lighting overhaul, Xbox Play Anywhere, and more.
- DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4.0 (great for Xbox Ally), Path Tracing on high-end systems, raytraced hair (wtf?), and more visual features.
Witcher 3 expansion "Songs of the Past" gets teased, too!
CD Projekt RED also recently announced that The Witcher 4 is slated for 2028, with yet another Witcher 3 expansion slated for later in 2027.
Additionally, CD Projekt RED also showed off the first teaser trailer for the third and final Witcher 3 DLC, titled "Songs of the Past."
"This full-fledged third expansion takes the White Wolf on a new adventure to the peaceful realm of Letten, where dark secrets lurk beneath the surface… Coming in 2027."
In the trailer, we catch a glimpse at a new hook-like tool Geralt has for pulling in enemies, as well as twisted nature-oriented enemies.
CD Projekt RED has been over-delivering almost none-stop since Cyberpunk 2077's launch, which disappointed users on PS4 and Xbox One owing to its performance. Fast forward half a decade, and Cyberpunk 2077 was fully revived and revamped, it had an award-winning TV show, and now we're getting an absolute mountain of free content for Witcher 3, the game that helped CD Projekt RED claim its top spot at the RPG pile.
Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 are deep in development as well, and there's every reason to think they too will continue CD Projekt RED's path towards legendary status.
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