The Witcher 3 Remastered Doesn't Need The Cartridge After Updating On Switch 2

You Can Get The Witcher 3 For Free On Switch 2 By Borrowing A Cartridge CD Projekt Published Sep 30, 2026, 9:46 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Sign in to your TheGamer account The Witcher 3 Remastered launched this week, putting an even better-looking version of one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time on current-gen platforms. That even includes the Nintendo Switch 2, a platform on which savvy gamers have already discovered they can get an entirely new copy of The Witcher 3 for free. How To Claim A Free Copy Of The Witcher 3 On Switch 2 To be clear, The Witcher 3’s remastered update is free on all platforms provided you own the base game. The discovery that has already been made on Switch 2 is that there’s a workaround that lets you claim and keep the remaster for free, even if you don’t own the original version. To claim your free Witcher 3 Remaster, you do indeed need to insert your cartridge for the original game into your console. That will trigger the update and download the remaster update. However, unlike some other upgrade paths that function this way, once the download is complete, you no longer need to insert the cartridge to play the game. The discovery was made by Erik_REF, who shared the good news on the r/gaming subreddit. It means that even if you don’t own The Witcher 3 on Switch, if you know someone who has a physical copy, or you can get access to a copy for a limited time without paying from somewhere like a library, then you can get a copy of your own for free, and it’s the remastered version, so even better. The Update Can Be Claimed On Multiple Consoles Using The Same Cartridge It doesn’t seem to take away that upgrade path for anyone else who uses that cartridge to upgrade to the remaster either. It’s not a case of the cart being a one-use key that will no longer grant you access to the upgrade after someone else has already used it. You can get your free update and then take the game to a friend’s house so they can get a free copy of The Witcher 3 too. The only part I’m not entirely clear on is whether access to the game will be revoked if you remove it from your Switch 2. You can redownload games if you need to delete them to make room for new stuff, but that might not be the case here. It seems likely it will function like any other game and you can redownload it whenever you need to, but maybe keep it on your Switch 2 until we get confirmation that you won’t need the cartridge again to redownload it. It’s also unclear if this is an oversight on CD Projekt’s part, or just the studio being incredibly generous. The Witcher 3 has been around for so long and sold so many copies that maybe the studio is fine with a few people getting the game for free at this stage. It’s a small price to pay for a gesture that will be remembered for a long time by those who benefit from it, and it gets even more people playing The Witcher 3 ahead of its upcoming DLC and then The Witcher 4 after that. Released September 29, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol Developer(s) CD Projekt Red Publisher(s) CD Projekt Red Franchise The Witcher Genre(s) Action, Adventure, RPG, Open-World, Exploration