By Kotaku | Created at 2026-09-30 00:39:30 | Updated at 2026-09-30 01:17:06
1 hour ago
The Witcher 3 Remastered is out today on all platforms. It’s a big 2.0-like update for the aging but still fantastic RPG. It is also completely free for people who already own the original Witcher 3. In fact, you don’t even need to own The Witcher 3 to upgrade to the remaster for free on Switch 2. All you need is the original Witcher 3 Switch cartridge, and you’ll soon have a shiny digital copy of the remastered RPG. And then you can ditch that old cart as it’s not needed to play the remaster.
On September 29, The Witcher 3 Remastered arrived on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. This massive overhaul of the original game looks really good, though you might want to turn off bloom. And if you own the game digitally on any of those platforms, well, good news: You now own the remastered version, too. That’s nice. But even better is, as spotted by deals guru Wario64, players are reporting that you can pop in the original Switch Witcher 3 cart into your Switch 2, boot up the game, and grab the remastered version.
On Tuesday, Reddit user Erik_REF claimed that they popped an old Witcher 3 cart into the Switch 2, grabbed the free remastered version of the game, and then let their brother borrow the cart, and he was able to do the very same thing. Others on Reddit have verified this works, too. And you don’t need to keep the old cart to play Witcher 3 Remastered. Just make sure you update the game, start it up, and upgrade from inside The Witcher 3.
Doing this means you could go to a library and borrow a free copy of the game, pop it into your console, get the new version of The Witcher 3, and return it so someone else can do the same. Or buy a copy, do this trick, share the cart with a few pals, and then sell it on eBay or whatever. And it’s unlikely this is going to get patched out or anything like that.
So go dig up that old Switch copy of The Witcher 3 and enjoy.
