The Witcher 3 Remastered PS5 Hotfix Targets Stability, Switch 2 Update Still Incoming

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered is the free visual upgrade of CD Projekt Red’s 2015 open-world RPG, released to existing owners on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 about two weeks ago. The Remastered picked up a platform-specific hotfix on PS5 and PS5 Pro today. Hotfix 5.01b, a 500MB download, ships “various stability improvements to help ensure a more reliable experience,” per the official @thewitcher account on X. The post is the entire patch notes.

CD Projekt Red is the Polish studio behind The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion of the latter. CDPR followed up the same post with a reassurance to Nintendo Switch 2 players who are still waiting on the console’s promised patch: “We’re working on getting the Switch 2 patch to all users as soon as possible.” The Switch 2 update is meant to improve visual “clarity and sharpness” in the remaster, Eurogamer reported.

The hotfix lands about two weeks after the free visual remaster shipped. The Remastered is a transformative update of the 11-year-old base game, swapping out lighting, textures, animations, and a layer of gameplay systems. Players have been filing stability reports on the new version since launch, and the same day-one complaints about an over-bright look have been walked back in earlier patches. Today’s hotfix targets the stability side of the bug list and promises more to come on Switch 2.

Digital Foundry is the Eurogamer-owned tech analysis team that benchmarks PC and console performance. Digital Foundry has now put the remastered PC version through a full performance pass, complete with optimized settings suggestions. Path tracing is a real-time lighting technique that simulates the way light bounces between surfaces, and it is more expensive than the standard ray tracing used in most games today. Path tracing in the new version remains expensive. Digital Foundry is tracking the path tracing changes in a separate follow-up. The free visual upgrade sits ahead of the Songs of the Past expansion, which is targeting next year and adds a new region with a story centered on Dandelion and Geralt’s family.

By the numbers

• 500MB is the size of today’s PS5 / PS5 Pro hotfix 5.01b.
• 2 weeks is roughly how long The Witcher 3 Remastered has been available across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Switch 2.
• 11 years separates the original The Witcher 3 (May 2015) from the free visual Remastered.
• 4 platforms ship the Remastered: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.
• 2 patches have already shipped for the Remastered before today’s 5.01b, addressing the over-bright default look.

The Switch 2 version sits in the same release calendar queue as a busy fall lineup. STARDUST: Wish of Witch lands on PS5 and Switch 2 with a date still to be confirmed, and Shin chan: Me and the Professor and Shiro and the Coal Town is heading to Switch 2 on March 4, 2027. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School launches on PS5 on November 5, and Gears of War: E-Day rounded up its reviews earlier this week. The CDPR hotfix is the only Switch 2 patch the day announced for the Remastered itself.

Our read: Stability on the PS5 remaster is the kind of patch that does not make headlines, but the Switch 2 follow-up commitment is the news players have been waiting for. The Remastered was always going to need a few rounds of patches on the new Switch 2 hardware, and CDPR is saying one is on the way without naming a date. Anyone who paused the Switch 2 version of the remaster for a month to let things settle now has a clearer reason to wait a few more weeks. The bigger story is the Songs of the Past expansion, which is the first new Witcher 3 content in 11 years and is the reason most players came back to the Remastered in the first place.

What’s next: CDPR has not given a date for the Switch 2 patch. The studio’s X account is the place to watch for the announcement. A pre-launch or day-one Switch 2 patch for Songs of the Past next year is the obvious place for both the visual patch and any further stability fixes to land together.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report