Updated on August 26, 2026, by Josh Cotts: We've updated this article to reflect The Witcher 3's continued evolution in 2026, including its upcoming remaster and new expansion.
It has somehow been more than 11 years since CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and yet calling it an "old" RPG still feels a little strange. Plenty of games released years after Geralt's final mainline adventure have already come and gone, while The Witcher 3 has continued finding new players, receiving substantial updates, and giving longtime fans reasons to return to the Continent. More than 65 million copies later, that apparently isn't going to stop anytime soon.
CD Projekt Red has now announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, another major overhaul of the acclaimed RPG launching September 29, 2026. Better yet, it isn't merely polishing up the visuals and calling it a day. Combat, movement, Roach, monster behavior, the skill tree, Witcher Signs, and plenty more are being reworked, while the brand-new Songs of the Past expansion is coming in 2027. The Witcher 3 already had a strong argument for being one of those rare games that seems to age slower than everything around it, but 2026 is about to make that argument even stronger.
There are plenty of reasons why The Witcher 3 remains relevant in 2026, but its story and overall plot are still among the primary elements that lure new players into the game and keep veteran players returning over and over. Visuals, combat systems, and open-world design can show their age as technology moves forward, but great characters and memorable storytelling tend to have a much longer shelf life, and that is one area where The Witcher 3 has lost very little of its appeal.
The story itself is relatively simple. Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher who hunts monsters for a living, is on a quest to find his adoptive daughter Ciri, who is being pursued by the Wild Hunt. For those unfamiliar, the Wild Hunt is a group of spectral riders searching for Ciri because of her Elder Blood and the extraordinary power it gives her. Ciri also happens to be the biological daughter of Emperor Emhyr var Emreis and the sole princess of Cintra, complicating Geralt's search even further.
There are plenty of reasons why The Witcher 3 remains relevant in 2026, but its story and overall plot are still among the primary elements that lure new players into the game and keep veteran players returning over and over.
However, The Witcher 3 quickly branches out from that central quest, and it isn't long before players find themselves wrapped up in the lives and problems of people scattered all over its massive world. Some of those stories involve kings and political conspiracies, while others begin with something as simple as a monster contract pinned to a notice board. More importantly, many of them aren't neatly divided into good and evil, meaning Geralt is regularly forced to make decisions without knowing whether he is actually doing the right thing. That approach to storytelling is a big part of why The Witcher 3 has aged as well as it has. Its visuals can be remastered, and its combat can be reworked, but quests like the Bloody Baron's storyline don't need modern technology to remain memorable.
Apart from an immersive story and well-developed characters, The Witcher 3 also offers a massive number of quests that give players a better understanding of the game's history, world, and lore. Many quests also offer Witcher 3 players a tough decision at the end, and those choices can sometimes have consequences that don't become clear until much later.
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