CD Projekt Red did not even discuss selling the remaster of The Witcher 3 to owners of the original.

The remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was one of the surprises at the recently concluded Gamescom, with CD Projekt RED revealing a range of upgrades that will be provided free to players who already own the game. In an interview with The Game Business, board member and co-CEO Michał Nowakowski stressed that the studio never treated the project as a paid opportunity.

We never asked ourselves that question. As we delved deeper into developing Songs of the Past with Fool's Theory, we began to say, “Why not make this game more modern? Everything felt like it was made 10 years ago.” Because, after all, it's been over ten years now.

Nowakowski said the idea to modernize the 11-year-old title began modestly—initially aiming to tweak a few elements so Geralt's third adventure would still feel fresh—but the scope expanded over time until what they had planned became a full remaster.

We started discussing what we could do to improve the game. It began with small things that grew into a larger project, and suddenly we realized we had a remaster on our hands. But returning to your original question about commercial aspects—we never thought of it that way. The purely commercial part is an addition, but concerning the game itself, we believed that providing it to players who already own it is a CDPR-style approach. We just wouldn’t consider it otherwise.

The remaster concept emerged while CD Projekt RED was collaborating with Fool’s Theory on the Songs of the Past project, and that partnership also reopened discussions about producing a third expansion for The Witcher 3. Nowakowski said a third expansion had been contemplated for years but remained shelved until recent developments and conversations made the studio reconsider.

We felt that The Witcher 3 is a closed chapter, and we wouldn’t return to it anymore. But a series of happy coincidences happened. We started working with Fool’s Theory. They were supposed to work on a remake of The Witcher 1 but realized the project needed a bit more time due to some technological dependencies related to The Witcher 4.

Actually, the idea of a third expansion had been swirling in our heads for a long time but remained unimplemented. We never thought we’d come back to it. But one conversation led to another, and finally, we said, “Why not make an expansion?” Does it even make sense after all this time? Has anyone ever done anything like this for a single-player game? This brought us to the conclusion: “It sounds crazy, but let’s give Geralt one more chance.” Once I was told, “You guys are running a continuous single-player game.” I laughed a little, but they were right. We are creating moments that attract new people.

Whether sending Geralt on another journey after so many years will pay off will be revealed next year, but some analysts already expect the third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to be successful.