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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an open-world role-playing game by CD Projekt Red, released on May 19, 2015, in which the monster slayer Geralt of Rivia searches for his adopted daughter Ciri before the Wild Hunt can take her.[^1][^4] It has two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, and CD Projekt counted more than 65 million copies sold as of Sep 2, 2026.[^10][^17] A free upgrade, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, came out on Sep 29, 2026, and a third, paid expansion, Songs of the Past, is due in 2027.[^21][^20]

Geralt fights a horned monster In CD Projekt Red's gamescom 2026 demo of Remastered, uploaded by GameSpot, Geralt takes on a large horned beast in a grassy ruin during the contract "Missing Son": he trades sword blows with it, dodges its charges, then opens the sign wheel and sets it alight with Igni.

Overview

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an open-world role-playing game made by CD Projekt Red, the game studio of the Polish company CD Projekt.[2][17] The player is Geralt of Rivia, a witcher who slays monsters for hire, and the story follows his search for his adopted daughter Ciri before the spectral riders of the Wild Hunt can seize her power for themselves.[1] It is the third game in the Witcher series, after The Witcher (2007) and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011), and it is set in the world of Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy books without adapting any one of them.[2] It came out on May 19, 2015 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[4][8] Since Sep 29, 2026 it has been sold as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, a free upgrade for existing owners on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and, for owners of the Switch edition, Nintendo Switch 2.[21] CD Projekt counted more than 65 million copies sold as of Sep 2, 2026, most of the more than 90 million sold by the whole Witcher series.[17]

Geralt fights a horned monster In CD Projekt Red's gamescom 2026 demo of Remastered, uploaded by GameSpot, Geralt takes on a large horned beast in a grassy ruin during the contract "Missing Son": he trades sword blows with it, dodges its charges, then opens the sign wheel and sets it alight with Igni.

Development

CD Projekt Red revealed the game in February 2013.[2] It was the studio's first open world, and level designer Miles Tost told /noclip in 2017 that the team began by marking possible locations on a flat screenshot of the map, then placed blue cylinders in the 3D world and timed the runs between them.[5] From those tests came what the designers called a rule of 40 seconds: within that time a player should notice something new, such as a herd of deer, some enemies or people on the road.[5] The game was first meant for 2014. In March 2014 CD Projekt moved it to February 2015, saying that a few extra months would let it reach the quality it wanted.[3] In December 2014 the studio delayed it again, to May 19, 2015, saying that it had found many details to correct near the end of development, that it needed another 12 weeks, and that it had set the earlier date too hastily.[4]

Blue cylinders and the rule of 40 seconds In /noclip's 2017 documentary, Miles Tost explains that the studio had never made an open world: the designers marked places on a screenshot of the map, dropped blue cylinders into the 3D world and timed the runs between them, and found that a player should see something every 40 seconds.

The 2013 demo and the downgrade debate

The trailer shown at E3 in June 2013 promised a multi-region open world, with dense forests, a crowded timber-framed town and a sailing boat on rough water.[6] When the game came out two years later, players compared footage of that kind with the release version and accused CD Projekt Red of downgrading the graphics.[7] Co-founder Marcin Iwiński told Eurogamer that he did not agree there had been a downgrade but accepted that players might see it differently, and he apologized to anyone who had bought the game because of the 2013 material.[7] He explained that demos for trade shows are built long before a game is finished and often stop working well once they are placed into the full open world.[7] He also said that without console sales the studio could not have afforded a game of this size, while granting that a version made only for PC could probably have looked better.[7] On PC the game was sold without copy protection on GOG, CD Projekt's own store.[2]

The 2013 E3 trailer The E3 2013 gameplay trailer, uploaded by IGN, shows the "Multi-region open world" the studio promised: thick forests, a busy town and a boat crossing a stormy sea, the footage players later set beside the 2015 release.

Story and setting

The game opens in the small region of White Orchard, where Geralt and his old teacher Vesemir are following the trail of the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg.[2] She brings Geralt to Emhyr var Emreis, emperor of Nilfgaard, whose armies are overrunning the northern kingdoms, and Emhyr hires him to find Ciri, the emperor's daughter, whom the Wild Hunt is pursuing.[2] The search leads through the war-torn swamps of Velen, the free city of Novigrad and the islands of Skellige, with a return to the witchers' keep of Kaer Morhen.[2] Choices along the way decide which of several endings Ciri reaches, how the war ends and whom Geralt ends up with.[2] Looking back on the game for its tenth anniversary in May 2025, its developers said that under the high stakes it is the story of a father trying to find his daughter.[9]

A father looking for his daughter In CD Projekt Red's tenth anniversary video, a developer watching the story recap says that for all its high stakes, the game at heart is about a father trying to find his daughter.

How it plays

Geralt is seen from behind and fights in real time, carrying a steel sword for people and a silver sword for monsters.[2] He also casts five simple spells called Signs, brews potions and blade oils, and uses his heightened witcher senses to follow tracks and read clues.[2] Much of his work comes from contracts posted on village notice boards, in which he studies a monster before hunting it, and many side quests end differently depending on his choices.[2] He crosses the large regions on foot, on his horse Roach or by boat, and plays a collectible card game, Gwent, in the taverns.[2] The 2026 Remastered version changed the systems underneath: skills now sit on a tree where each has three ranks and opens through the skills before it, combat has a new dynamic camera and a way to break off a fight, and Roach handles better.[22] IGN's review update of Oct 2, 2026 found that the remaster's main gain was removing obstacles to fun rather than adding content, though some technical problems remained.[31]

Expansions and later versions

CD Projekt Red announced two paid expansions on Apr 7, 2015: Hearts of Stone at $10 and Blood and Wine at $20, or $25 for both, with about 10 and 20 hours of play.[10] Hearts of Stone came out on Oct 13, 2015, and Blood and Wine, set in the sunny duchy of Toussaint, on May 31, 2016.[2] The developers describe Hearts of Stone as their twist on the Polish folk tale of Pan Twardowski, and one called Blood and Wine almost the size of a whole game.[9] A Nintendo Switch edition, ported by Saber Interactive with both expansions and all 16 free downloadable extras, was announced on Jun 11, 2019 for release that year.[11] On Dec 14, 2022 a free next-generation update gave owners native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions with ray tracing, a photo mode and saves shared across platforms, along with a quest and armor inspired by Netflix's Witcher series.[12] Since Aug 25, 2026 both expansions are free for every owner of the base game.[20]

Reception and sales

Critics praised the game widely: Metacritic lists the original release at 93 on PC from 33 reviews, 92 on PlayStation 4 and 91 on Xbox One.[8] Its developers recall hoping for scores above 90 and hearing the first review, a 10 out of 10 from GameSpot, travel through the office.[9] At The Game Awards on Dec 3, 2015 it won Game of the Year and Best Role-Playing Game, and CD Projekt Red was named Developer of the Year.[13] Accepting the main award, the studio recalled starting in 2002 with the dream of a mature, highly nonlinear role-playing game that nobody believed in.[14] CD Projekt reported more than 50 million copies sold in May 2023, more than 60 million in May 2025 and more than 65 million as of Sep 2, 2026.[15][16][17] Netflix's series renewed interest: the game's Steam record of 103,329 concurrent players, set in January 2020 after the show began, stood until 2026.[18] As of Nov 7, 2026, 96% of its 249,119 English-language Steam reviews are positive.[19]

Game of the Year 2015 In The Game Awards' own clip, the host names The Witcher 3 Game of the Year 2015, its third award of the night after Best Role-Playing Game and Developer of the Year, and CD Projekt Red thanks the team and the players.

Remastered

CD Projekt announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered on Aug 25, 2026, co-developed with the studio Yigsoft.[20] It came out on Sep 29, 2026, free for owners on GOG, Steam, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native Nintendo Switch 2 version free for owners of the Switch edition.[21] It reworks the animations, adds finishers and an adaptive combat camera, rebalances the skills on a new tree, rebuilds the lighting and rendering, and brings mods through mod.io to consoles.[21] Because of the new tree, players' skill points were reset, and master craftsmen can now change how an item looks without changing its stats.[22] The announcement names no version for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.[21] New buyers pay $49.99 on the US PlayStation Store as of Nov 7, 2026.[25] Steam's player count reached 120,975 on launch day and an all-time high of 137,724 by Oct 5, 2026, per SteamDB as reported by Inven Global.[18] Metacritic scores Remastered from 92 to 94 by platform, and OpenCritic shows a Top Critic Average of 91 with all 29 critics recommending it, as of Nov 7, 2026.[23][24]

What Remastered changes CD Projekt Red's announcement trailer lists the headline changes as cards over gameplay: upgraded visuals, faster combat, new Sign effects, better riding, new monster behavior, the rebuilt skill tree, transmogrification, an expanded photo mode and new finishers.

Songs of the Past

Songs of the Past, a third expansion, was announced on May 27, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2027, co-developed with the studio Fool's Theory.[27] It takes place in Letten, the homeland of Geralt's friend Dandelion, where Geralt goes with him to help with a personal matter, and it gives Geralt a chain weapon suited to fighting crowds.[26] Unlike the first two expansions as they are sold today, it is paid content, and pre-orders opened on Aug 25, 2026.[20] At gamescom in August 2026, level design lead Miles Tost introduced Letten as a fully realized open world comparable in scope to Blood and Wine, with new quests, characters and monsters.[28] As of Nov 7, 2026, CD Projekt Red has named no release date beyond 2027 and no price, and Steam lists the expansion without one.[17][19]

Welcome to Letten In CD Projekt Red's gamescom 2026 showcase, Miles Tost welcomes players to Letten, calls it an open world comparable in scope to Blood and Wine, and shows Geralt in a Belleteyn outfit on the night after the festival.

The Witcher 4

The next game in the series leaves Geralt behind as its hero. CD Projekt Red revealed The Witcher IV with a cinematic trailer at The Game Awards in December 2024, with Ciri as its central character.[29] Game director Sebastian Kalemba called it the start of a brand-new Witcher saga, and the studio said it is built on customized Unreal Engine 5 technology.[29] In a technical demo shown on Jun 3, 2025, CD Projekt Red said the footage ran on a standard PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with ray tracing, and that players will explore the region of Kovir as Ciri, now a professional witcher who hunts monsters for coin.[30] As of Sep 2, 2026, CD Projekt's planned release window for The Witcher 4 is 2028, a year after Songs of the Past.[17]

Ciri in Kovir In CD Projekt Red's Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, a presenter says the footage runs on a standard PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with ray tracing, while Ciri, now a witcher, investigates a monster in Kovir and rides back to a village.

Developer and publisher
CD Projekt Red (CD Projekt); Remastered co-developed with Yigsoft[19][20]
Released
May 19, 2015; Remastered on Sep 29, 2026[4][21]
Platforms
Remastered: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2. Earlier versions: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch[8][11][21]
Expansions
Hearts of Stone (Oct 13, 2015), Blood and Wine (May 31, 2016), Songs of the Past (2027, paid)[2][27]
Copies sold
More than 65 million[17]
Metacritic
93 on PC (2015); Remastered 92 to 94 by platform[8][23]
Steam all-time peak
137,724 concurrent players (October 2026)[18]
Top award
Game of the Year, The Game Awards 2015[13]
  1. CD Projekt Red reveals The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.[2]
  2. The game is delayed from 2014 to February 2015.[3]
  3. A second delay sets May 19, 2015.[4]
  4. Release on Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[4][8]
  5. Hearts of Stone, the first expansion.[2]
  6. Game of the Year at The Game Awards.[13]
  7. Blood and Wine, the second expansion.[2]
  8. A Nintendo Switch edition is announced for 2019.[11]
  9. Free next-generation update for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.[12]
  10. The Witcher IV is revealed, with Ciri as its hero.[29]
  11. Songs of the Past is announced for 2027.[27]
  12. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered comes out as a free upgrade.[21]

What we think

This section is Heartipedia’s own opinion, not sourced fact. Each view is reasoned from the facts cited above and from trends we see; it may turn out wrong. A prediction’s words are never changed once made: when the facts are known we add the result under it, right or wrong. Every prediction we have made.

Songs of the Past in the first half of 2027

We expect Songs of the Past to come out between January and June 2027, not in the fall.

Why: CD Projekt Red already showed Letten playable at gamescom in August 2026, a year ahead, and pre-orders opened the day Remastered was announced. The Witcher 4's release window is 2028, and we think CD Projekt wants a clear year between Geralt's last story and Ciri's first, so the expansion cannot slide to late 2027 without crowding the next game's marketing.

Prediction Confidence: Possible Check by: Jul 2027 Made

Songs of the Past hands the series to Ciri

We expect Songs of the Past to end with a nod to Ciri's life as a witcher, a letter, a message or an epilogue scene that points toward The Witcher 4, while Ciri never appears as a playable character. We think the expansion will not settle which of the base game's endings is canon.

Why: The Witcher 4 makes Ciri a professional witcher hunting monsters for coin, which matches only some of the base game's endings for her. Songs of the Past is Geralt and Dandelion's story in Letten, and it comes out a year before The Witcher 4, so a light hand-off fits both, while choosing an ending would overrule millions of players' saves.

Prediction Confidence: Possible Check by: Dec 2027 Made

The Witcher 4 slips out of 2028

We expect CD Projekt to move The Witcher 4's release out of 2028 and into 2029 or later.

Why: The Witcher 3 itself slipped twice, from 2014 to February 2015 and then to May 2015, after the studio admitted it had set its date too hastily. The Witcher 4 is the first game of a new saga on an engine new to the studio, Unreal Engine 5, and in November 2026 CD Projekt still gives only a release window, not a date.

Prediction Confidence: Possible Check by: Nov 2028 Made

Past 70 million

We expect CD Projekt to report more than 70 million copies of The Witcher 3 sold by the end of June 2027.

Why: Its count rose from more than 60 million in May 2025 to more than 65 million by September 2026 without a remaster. Remastered then drew the largest crowd the game has ever had on Steam, 137,724 players at once in October 2026, and sells new at $49.99, with paid content still to come.

Prediction Confidence: Likely Check by: Jun 2027 Made

The downgrade was the right call

We think the downgrade of 2015 was the right trade, and the strongest proof is the sales chart: our view is that the game would not be remembered as it is had it been built for PC alone to match the 2013 demo.

Why: Marcin Iwiński said in May 2015 that without console sales the studio could not have afforded a game of this size, even if a PC-only version could have looked better. The game went on to sell more than 65 million copies across consoles and PC, and the lost visual polish was won back for free by the 2022 next-generation update and Remastered, which owners received without paying again.

Opinion Made

What others predict

Predictions made on video by creators, experts or the subject of this page, in their words, each linked at the second it is said. The one line after each is our view. When the facts are known we add the result, right or wrong.

gameranx: bigger than Hearts of Stone

gameranx , at 8:42 Check by: Aug 2026

"My hunch is that Songs of the Past is probably going to be bigger than that." (YouTube's automatic captions; "that" is an expansion on the scale of Hearts of Stone.)

Our view: We think it was a safe call, since a studio does not name a third expansion eleven years on to make it smaller than the first.

Result (): Right. At gamescom in August 2026 CD Projekt Red's level design lead Miles Tost introduced Letten as a fully realized open world comparable in scope to Blood and Wine, the larger of the two earlier expansions, which CD Projekt Red announced in 2015 at about 20 hours against Hearts of Stone's 10.

Neon Knight: quiet groundwork for The Witcher 4

Neon Knight , at 3:53 Check by: Dec 2027

"I do still think there will be some sort of groundwork laid for the next game, maybe subtly" (YouTube's automatic captions)

Our view: We think he is right, and that the groundwork will be a mention of Ciri, not an appearance.

Moments

  1. Geralt fights a horned monster In CD Projekt Red's gamescom 2026 demo of Remastered, uploaded by GameSpot, Geralt takes on a large horned beast in a grassy ruin during the contract "Missing Son": he trades sword blows with it, dodges its charges, then opens the sign wheel and sets it alight with Igni.
  2. Blue cylinders and the rule of 40 seconds In /noclip's 2017 documentary, Miles Tost explains that the studio had never made an open world: the designers marked places on a screenshot of the map, dropped blue cylinders into the 3D world and timed the runs between them, and found that a player should see something every 40 seconds.
  3. The 2013 E3 trailer The E3 2013 gameplay trailer, uploaded by IGN, shows the "Multi-region open world" the studio promised: thick forests, a busy town and a boat crossing a stormy sea, the footage players later set beside the 2015 release.
  4. A father looking for his daughter In CD Projekt Red's tenth anniversary video, a developer watching the story recap says that for all its high stakes, the game at heart is about a father trying to find his daughter.
  5. Game of the Year 2015 In The Game Awards' own clip, the host names The Witcher 3 Game of the Year 2015, its third award of the night after Best Role-Playing Game and Developer of the Year, and CD Projekt Red thanks the team and the players.
  6. What Remastered changes CD Projekt Red's announcement trailer lists the headline changes as cards over gameplay: upgraded visuals, faster combat, new Sign effects, better riding, new monster behavior, the rebuilt skill tree, transmogrification, an expanded photo mode and new finishers.
  7. Welcome to Letten In CD Projekt Red's gamescom 2026 showcase, Miles Tost welcomes players to Letten, calls it an open world comparable in scope to Blood and Wine, and shows Geralt in a Belleteyn outfit on the night after the festival.
  8. Ciri in Kovir In CD Projekt Red's Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, a presenter says the footage runs on a standard PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with ray tracing, while Ciri, now a witcher, investigates a monster in Kovir and rides back to a village.

References

  1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Redprimary
  2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Wikipediauser_generated
  3. The Witcher 3 Delayed Until February 2015, Game Informer, 2014-03-11press
  4. The Witcher 3 delayed to May 2015, Engadget, 2014-12-08press
  5. Designing The World of The Witcher 3, /noclip, 2017-10-06press
  6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Trailer - E3 2013, IGN, 2013-06-12press
  7. The Witcher 3 Developers Talk Graphics Downgrade, Game Wouldn't Exist "As It Is" Without Console Versions, PlayStation LifeStyle, 2015-05-21press
  8. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metacriticpress
  9. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 10th Anniversary Celebration with the Developers, CD Projekt Red, 2025-05-30primary
  10. Two massive expansions announced for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, PCWorld, 2015-04-07press
  11. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is coming to Nintendo Switch this year, CD Projekt, 2019-06-11primary
  12. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition slays its way onto next gen, CD Projekt Red, 2022-12-14primary
  13. Witcher 3 and Splatoon dominate The Game Awards 2015, Digital Trends, 2015-12-04press
  14. The Game Awards 2015 - Game of the Year Winner, The Game Awards, 2015-12-04press
  15. The Witcher 3 has officially sold over 50 million copies, Press Start, 2023-05-30press
  16. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has sold 60 million copies, Shacknews, 2025-05-28press
  17. CD Projekt Red wraps up the first half of 2026, CD Projekt, 2026-09-02primary
  18. Powered by remaster, The Witcher 3 sets new all-time peak concurrent player record on Steam, Inven Global, 2026-10-05press
  19. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Steam, Valveprimary
  20. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered announced, Songs of the Past gets first look, CD Projekt, 2026-08-25primary
  21. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered available now, CD Projekt, 2026-09-29primary
  22. See what's new in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, CD Projekt Red, 2026-09-28primary
  23. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, Metacriticpress
  24. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, OpenCriticpress
  25. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, PlayStation Storeprimary
  26. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered and Songs of the Past, Xbox Wire, 2026-08-25primary
  27. Announcing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Songs of the Past, CD Projekt Red, 2026-05-27primary
  28. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past | gamescom 2026 Showcase Supercut, CD Projekt Red, 2026-08-30primary
  29. The Witcher IV revealed at The Game Awards, CD Projekt Red, 2024-12-13primary
  30. The Witcher 4 - Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo, CD Projekt Red, 2025-06-03primary
  31. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered Review Update, IGN, 2026-10-02press

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About this page

Drafted by
claude-opus-5-5 on 2026-11-07T12:00:00Z
Checked by
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Reviewed by
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Status
Published and revised continuously; this version is the one described here.
Published
7 November 2026
Last updated
7 November 2026, see what changed
Sources
No Wikipedia source; the sources are listed above.
License
Text CC BY-SA 4.0; embedded videos and thumbnails remain their uploaders’ property, shown under YouTube’s Terms of Service; quotations excluded. Details

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