CD Projekt Red has put a number on how confident it is about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered running on handheld hardware, and for the first time the studio has said plainly that Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2 owners get the same underlying performance, not a scaled-down version. The confirmation came from Jakub Kutrzuba, executive producer of external projects at CD Projekt Red, in comments reported by PC Gamer. With the remaster set to launch September 29, 2026, that’s 27 days out from today, and the studio is now speaking specifically to the two handhelds that make up a growing share of how people replay open-world RPGs.
The story matters less for the release date, which CD Projekt Red confirmed weeks ago, and more for what a working producer is willing to say on the record about parity between a PC-class handheld and a console hybrid. Handheld ports of decade-old open-world games have a mixed track record, and players who already sank hundreds of hours into Geralt’s journey want to know whether the remaster will run smoothly the second time around, on a screen the size of a paperback.
What CD Projekt Red Just Confirmed
According to the report, Kutrzuba addressed Steam Deck performance directly: “When it comes to Steam Deck, based on what we see, the game will work the same way, but look much much better.” That’s a specific claim: not just that the remaster runs, but that it runs the way the current, already-optimized version of The Witcher 3 runs on Valve’s handheld today, while looking noticeably better.
CD Projekt Red has already stated that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered modernizes the RPG with upgrades and enhancements to visuals, performance, and gameplay, arriving as a free upgrade for existing owners on GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The remaster ships on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, according to the studio’s official announcement.
Who Is Jakub Kutrzuba, and Why His Words Carry Weight
Kutrzuba’s title, executive producer of external projects, puts him in charge of the teams and studios CD Projekt Red partners with to bring its games to additional platforms and formats. That’s precisely the role that would oversee a Steam Deck optimization pass or a Switch 2 port, which makes his comments more than marketing copy. Producers in that seat typically speak only once engineering has real benchmarks in hand, not projections.
Reports from the interview note that CD Projekt Red has not published frame rate, resolution, or battery life figures for either the Steam Deck or Switch 2 builds. Kutrzuba’s statement is qualitative, not a spec sheet. Readers should treat any specific FPS or resolution numbers circulating online as unverified until the studio or an independent outlet with hands-on hardware confirms them.
The Rendering Engine Change Behind the Performance Claim
The reason CD Projekt Red can promise better visuals without sacrificing handheld frame rates, per Kutrzuba, comes down to engine-level efficiency gains. He explained it this way: “With the newer rendering engine, many of the systems just work faster.” That single sentence carries the whole thesis of the remaster: the studio isn’t just adding higher-resolution textures on top of the 2015 game, it rebuilt how the renderer processes scenes so the same hardware budget produces a cleaner image.
Kutrzuba tied that efficiency gain directly to both handhelds in the same breath: “So we are just capable of showing a more beautiful image with the same cost, and this is also the case for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is coming together with the Remaster as well.” That’s the crux of the Switch 2 story too, not a separate, lesser build, but the same rendering pipeline benefiting a second piece of hardware.
Switch 2 Gets the Same Treatment, Not a Separate Build
This is the detail that separates today’s story from the original remaster reveal. When CD Projekt Red first confirmed the remaster’s release window and pricing structure, Switch 2 was listed as a supported platform, but the studio hadn’t spoken to how the handheld’s build compares to Steam Deck’s. Kutrzuba’s comments close that gap, saying the “same cost, more beautiful image” logic behind the Steam Deck optimization “is also the case” for Switch 2.
Switch 2 owners who already bought the original Switch 1 release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition are set to receive the remastered version as a free upgrade too, based on CD Projekt Red’s official announcement. That mirrors the free-upgrade path already promised to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S owners.
Platform and Upgrade Breakdown
Here’s how the confirmed platform list and upgrade terms break down as of today, based on CD Projekt Red’s official statements and the PC Gamer interview.
| Platform | Free Upgrade From Original | Handheld | Performance Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store) | Yes | No (native) | Confirmed shipping Sept. 29, 2026 |
| Steam Deck | Yes (via Steam) | Yes | “Will work the same way, but look much much better” – Kutrzuba |
| PlayStation 5 | Yes | No (native) | Confirmed shipping Sept. 29, 2026 |
| Xbox Series X|S | Yes | No (native) | Confirmed shipping Sept. 29, 2026 |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | Yes (from Switch 1 owners) | Yes | Same rendering gains as Steam Deck, per Kutrzuba |
How Today’s Story Differs From the Original Remaster Reveal
CD Projekt Red’s initial remaster announcement centered on the release date, the platform list, and the free-upgrade terms for existing owners. It answered the what and when. What it didn’t answer, until this interview, was the how: how a nine-year-old open-world engine gets rebuilt to run identically on a PC handheld and a hybrid console without one platform lagging behind. That gap is exactly what Kutrzuba’s comments fill, and it’s why the story is developing rather than repeating.
It also reframes the remaster from a visual refresh into an engineering story. Publishers routinely promise upgraded lighting or textures in a remaster. Far fewer producers go on record saying the handheld version will match the current game’s performance while looking better, because that claim is falsifiable within days of launch. If frame pacing stutters on Steam Deck at release, Kutrzuba’s quote becomes the first thing critics cite.
The Witcher 3’s Decade of Re-Releases
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has one of the longest re-release histories of any open-world RPG this generation. It launched on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2015, picked up a next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X|S update, and shipped a Nintendo Switch 1 Complete Edition that cloud-streamed or ran a heavily scaled-back native build depending on region and use case. The Remastered edition is the game’s fourth major platform-defining release.
| Release | Platforms | Defining Change |
|---|---|---|
| Original launch | PC, PS4, Xbox One | Base game and Blood and Wine / Hearts of Stone expansions |
| Next-gen update | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S | Ray tracing, faster load times, free upgrade for owners |
| Switch 1 Complete Edition | Nintendo Switch | Native handheld build with reduced fidelity |
| Wild Hunt – Remastered | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 | New rendering engine, Steam Deck and Switch 2 parity claim |
Handheld RPG Remasters: How This One Stacks Up
Open-world RPGs are historically the hardest genre to bring to handheld hardware without compromise. Large streaming worlds, dense foliage, and long draw distances tax both GPU and memory bandwidth in ways linear games don’t. Steam Deck has already proven it can run demanding RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 at playable, if reduced, settings, which is part of why Kutrzuba’s comparison lands: he’s not claiming a miracle, he’s claiming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered will sit alongside those known-good handheld ports rather than below them.
Switch 2 is the newer variable in that comparison. Nintendo’s hybrid console has a smaller published library of native open-world RPG ports so far, so a CD Projekt Red producer publicly linking Switch 2 performance to Steam Deck’s proven track record functions as a vote of confidence in Nintendo’s newer hardware, not just in the remaster itself.
Why Switch 2 Support Matters for CD Projekt Red’s Roadmap
CD Projekt Red is simultaneously developing Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel and continuing work on further Witcher entries, so how it handles a Switch 2 port now sets expectations for those future releases. A remaster that runs well on Nintendo’s newer hardware gives the studio a template, and a public track record, for scaling its next original titles to the same platform rather than skipping it, as it did with the original Switch 1 version of Cyberpunk 2077.
It also signals how CD Projekt Red is thinking about its addressable market. Switch consoles have sold in the hundreds of millions of units across the platform’s lifetime, and a studio known for dense, mature-rated RPGs porting cleanly to Nintendo’s ecosystem expands who can play its catalog without needing a gaming PC or a current-gen console.
Market and Business Impact
The remaster ships as a free upgrade for existing owners across most platforms, which means CD Projekt Red isn’t charging its existing base to replay the game. The revenue case instead rests on new-platform sales, Switch 2 owners and Steam Deck players who never owned the original, plus a fresh wave of bundle and physical-edition purchases timed to the September 29 date. A confirmed handheld performance parity claim directly supports that sales pitch, since Steam Deck and Switch 2 buyers are exactly the audience most likely to ask “will this run well on my device” before purchasing.
For Valve and Nintendo, a smooth, high-profile remaster launch on both platforms in the same week functions as free marketing for the hardware itself. Steam Deck’s reputation was built in large part on major PC releases from studios like CD Projekt Red running well out of the box, and Switch 2 is still early enough in its life cycle that every strong third-party port helps define what kind of games the console can realistically host.
What’s Still Unconfirmed
None of the reports gathered so far include specific frame rate targets, resolution numbers, or battery life estimates for either the Steam Deck or Switch 2 builds of the remaster. Kutrzuba’s comments describe the performance relationship qualitatively, matching the current game’s behavior while improving visuals, rather than quoting a locked 30fps or 40fps target. There’s also no confirmation yet of a fresh Steam Deck Verified badge specifically for the remastered build. The existing Witcher 3 listing carries verification, but the remaster is a new build under review.
Readers should treat any FPS figures, resolution claims, or Verified-badge status circulating on social media as speculation until CD Projekt Red, Valve, or a reviewer with hands-on hardware time confirms them directly.
Industry Voices on the Remaster
Jakub Kutrzuba, executive producer of external projects at CD Projekt Red, gave the clearest public read yet on how the studio is approaching handheld parity. Speaking to PC Gamer, he said: “When it comes to Steam Deck, based on what we see, the game will work the same way, but look much much better.”
On the engineering behind that claim, Kutrzuba told the outlet: “With the newer rendering engine, many of the systems just work faster.” He extended the same logic to Nintendo’s newer hardware in the same interview: “So we are just capable of showing a more beautiful image with the same cost, and this is also the case for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is coming together with the Remaster as well.” Both quotes are drawn from the same PC Gamer report.
CD Projekt Red’s own announcement, cited in coverage from Nintendo Everything, frames the release in broader terms: “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered modernizes the generation-defining RPG with a range of upgrades and enhancements to visuals, performance, gameplay, and more.”
Five Predictions for the September 29 Launch
Based on the platform pattern CD Projekt Red has confirmed so far, a few outcomes look likely, though none of the following is officially confirmed and each should be read as analysis rather than fact.
First, expect Valve to issue an updated Steam Deck Verified rating for the remastered build within days of launch, given how directly CD Projekt Red’s own producer tied the remaster to Deck performance. Second, early Switch 2 impressions will likely draw comparisons to how the console handled other demanding third-party ports at launch, since this remaster is one of the highest-profile open-world RPGs the platform has hosted natively. Third, CD Projekt Red will probably publish a technical breakdown or developer diary closer to release, similar to how it handled the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S next-gen update rollout, to preempt performance questions before reviews land.
Fourth, the free-upgrade path is likely to drive a short-term spike in Steam concurrent players around launch week, as existing owners jump back in to see the rendering changes firsthand rather than waiting for a sale. Fifth, if the Steam Deck and Switch 2 builds do hold up to Kutrzuba’s claim, it would strengthen the case for CD Projekt Red bringing its next original release, rather than just a remaster, to Switch 2 at or near launch, instead of the delayed and scaled-back approach it took with Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 1.
What to Watch Before September 29
- CD Projekt Red or Valve publishing an updated Steam Deck Verified badge specifically for the remastered build.
- First hands-on previews with actual frame rate and resolution numbers from outlets given early Steam Deck or Switch 2 hardware access.
- Whether Nintendo highlights the remaster in a Switch 2 showcase before launch, given the platform’s still-growing native RPG library.
- Pricing and bundle details for players buying the remaster fresh rather than upgrading an existing copy.
- Whether CD Projekt Red applies the same rendering-engine efficiency gains to future re-releases, including any additional Cyberpunk 2077 platform work.
Expect the loudest confirmation or pushback to come within the first 48 hours after launch, once Steam Deck and Switch 2 owners who pre-loaded the remaster start posting direct comparisons against the current live version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered release?
CD Projekt Red has confirmed a release date of September 29, 2026, across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Will the remaster run well on Steam Deck?
CD Projekt Red producer Jakub Kutrzuba said the remaster “will work the same way, but look much much better” compared to the current Steam Deck build of The Witcher 3, according to PC Gamer. Exact frame rate and resolution figures haven’t been published yet.
Does the Nintendo Switch 2 version get the same performance as Steam Deck?
Kutrzuba said the same rendering-engine efficiency gains behind the Steam Deck claim “is also the case for the Nintendo Switch 2,” per the reported interview. No official FPS or resolution numbers have been shared for either platform yet.
Is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered a free upgrade?
Yes. CD Projekt Red has confirmed it’s a free upgrade for existing owners on GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Switch 2 owners who purchased the original Switch 1 Complete Edition are also covered.
Who is Jakub Kutrzuba?
Jakub Kutrzuba is CD Projekt Red’s executive producer of external projects, the role responsible for overseeing platform partnerships and ports, including handheld optimization work.
Has the remaster received a new Steam Deck Verified badge?
That hasn’t been confirmed. The current Witcher 3 listing on Steam carries verification, but the remastered build is a separate release and Valve hasn’t publicly issued a fresh badge for it as of this report.
What platforms support The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered?
PC (via Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, according to CD Projekt Red’s official announcement.
How does this remaster compare to the game’s next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X|S update?
The earlier next-gen update added ray tracing and faster load times on console and PC. The Remastered edition goes further with a new rendering engine that CD Projekt Red says improves image quality across all platforms, including, for the first time, a stated performance parity claim for Steam Deck and Switch 2.
