CD Projekt Red has announced the much-rumoured third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It’s called Songs of the Past, it’s based around Geralt again, and it’s coming out next year on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.
CDPR is co-developing the expansion with Fool’s Theory, as has been rumoured. Fool’s Theory is the studio made up of CDPR veterans that’s remaking The Witcher 1 and helping on The Witcher 4. Fool’s Theory also made the Polish-set role-playing game The Thaumaturge, which I thought was pretty good.
Songs of the Past is described in a press release as a “third expansion” for The Witcher 3, suggesting it’s comparable in size to previous expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, which were sizable releases. Blood and Wine in particular featured a whole new region and nearly a single-player game’s worth of adventure.
There’s no detail on the content of the expansion other than that it will star Geralt, which was in question, as he effectively retires at the end of Blood and Wine and hands the reins over to Ciri, who’ll star in The Witcher 4. This expansion being called Songs of the Past suggests we might be going back in time, which would be a neat way to solve the issue of Geralt retiring and Ciri taking over. But the question then becomes how far back in time we’ll go.
It makes sense to return to the period of time we glimpse at the beginning of The Witcher 3, when Ciri is a child, because that’s a period of time that’s otherwise untouched by the games. From what I can tell, the games have Ciri born in 1251, and then The Witcher 1 adventure takes place in 1270, The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings in 1271, The Witcher 3 base game in 1272, Hearts of Stone in approximately 1273, and then Blood and Wine a few years later in 1275.
Setting it in the early part of Ciri’s life allows her to still be involved, which is important for the upcoming Witcher 4 game, and it gets us clear of the previous Witcher game adventures. CD Projekt Red has also shown us Geralt in this era as well – we briefly play as him – so there’s no need to make new character models or drastic visual changes.
However, these earlier events in Ciri’s life are well documented in Andrzej Sapkowski’s books and have been covered closely by the divisive Netflix Witcher series – chiefly, how Geralt comes to be a part of Ciri’s life, and what happens next. Would CD Projekt Red dabble directly in those events or prefer to steer well clear? Its games, after all, tell original tales. Perhaps we might go much further back in time.
In terms of a release date, there’s been some financial-results-related pressure on CD Projekt Red to release something significant this year to make up a revenue shortfall required to meet a company bonus target. But as CD Projekt Red’s financial year runs the same as a calendar year, and this expansion is scheduled for 2027, that rules out any hope of it contributing. I don’t see the urgency to release it early in 2027, then, though The Witcher 3’s 12th anniversary in May would be a good moment for it.
The 2027 release of Songs of the Past does suggest The Witcher 4 won’t release next year, though, because it wouldn’t make sense to release two big Witcher games so close to one another and have them get in each other’s way. CD Projekt Red has said before that The Witcher 4 wouldn’t be released before 2027, but hasn’t put any kind of date on the game beyond that.
More information on the new expansion Songs of the Past is expected later this summer. Also, note that CD Projekt Red has significantly increased The Witcher 3 PC minimum system requirements in preparation for the expansion, most notably now requiring Windows 11 and an SSD to run the game.
