The Witcher 3 Remastered can be unlocked on Switch 2 for free via any physical version of the game for Switch — whether its your copy of the game or not.
Switch 2 owners have discovered that physical cartridges for The Witcher 3 on Switch can be used an unlimited number of times to grant a digital copy of The Witcher 3 Remastered. So, all you need to do is rent or borrow a copy of the game to unlock unlimited access. And no, you don’t need to keep the original game cartridge inserted after unlocking the upgraded digital version.
Have a friend with the game? Ask to borrow it! Have a cheap second-hand game shop nearby? Head in and see if there’s a copy for sale, and then trade it back in!
This remarkably generous solution is the result of CD Projekt keeping its promise that upgrades for the newly-relaunched RPG classic will be free on all platforms, even for physical copies. And while there’s no version of The Witcher 3 Remastered for Nintendo’s original Switch, the game will unlock a free version of Remastered for Switch 2.
Major features added in the remaster include improvements to combat, traversal and movement, plus revamped mount handling, enhanced monster behaviors, a skill tree revamp, armor transmog, an expanded photo mode, new finishers and much more.
Other additions include the long-awaited cross-platform mod support, new quest tracking, immersive meditation, refined animations, UI improvements, a looting rework, refreshed motion blur, new accessibility features, a tutorial modernization, HDR improvements, a foliage shading rework, ray-tracing improvements, a global lighting reork, new shading model, subsurface scattering, and a new tone mapper.
Of course, all of this is coming ahead of next year’s Songs of the Past, The Witcher 3’s third expansion, which you will need to pay for. While that’s still some time away (we don’t know yet exactly when in 2027 it will arrive), The Witcher 3 Remastered is an enormous game — and remember, it also now includes the game’s first two expansions as standard. So, you’d better get started.
To ease you into Geralt’s life on the road, check out the Things The Witcher 3 Doesn’t Tell You, plus IGN’s The Witcher 3 Walkthrough and The Witcher 3 Endings guide, which outlines all of the major quests and choices in the base game and expansions (now bundled in with the Remastered edition). When you’re ready for the tough choices, check out our The Witcher 3 Sex and Romance guide to see who Geralt can smooch and all the opportunities to do so. And to make Geralt as strong a monster hunter as possible, check out all the Witcher Gear Locations, Places of Power Locations, and even Gwent Card Locations.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
