The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt might be an 11-year-old game, but its popularity hasn’t waned over a decade after its release. CD Projekt Red, the developer behind it, has played a significant role in keeping The Witcher 3’s popularity alive—an important effort, considering the next game in the franchise, The Witcher 4, is expected to come out in 2028, according to one of the company’s joint CEOs, Michał Nowakowski.
It’s been ten years since Blood and Wine, the second, and to-date last, DLC of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, was released to worldwide acclaim. A wholly new, full-fledged expansion releasing in 2027 may be a pleasant surprise to fans, but it also makes business sense for CD Projekt Red. The Songs of the Past expansion is the perfect setpiece to reel in the last of the players unfamiliar with The Witcher universe and bridge the gap between the third and the fourth game.
At Gamescom 2026, we learned more about the expansion and got a chance to see some gameplay in an extended sneak peek at what the story could hold for Geralt, now well into his retirement at the Corvo Bianco estate in Toussaint.
Songs of the Past sees Geralt answering a call for help from Dandelion, who implores him to come to his family seat of Lettehove in the verdant region of Letten, a land of plenty separated from the still-war-torn Continent by impressive and gorgeous-looking mountains. The Gamescom preview showcased the beginning of the story, introducing the central mystery, a supporting (and quite colourful) cast of characters, some spooky encounters, and the signature banter between Geralt and the NPCs. The new area is a fully realized open world with unique region-specific enemies and an enticing story that will fit right in with the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions.
This expansion is undeniably modern. The base game of The Witcher 3, while not dated by any stretch, is still a 2015 game at its core, with the character models, movements, and dialogue recognizably of that time. Songs of the Past looks and feels like a game developed in 2026—true to its roots, but imperceptibly more fluid and organic. The preview included a boss fight, whose design impressed me the most, especially once it started moving in combat. The stance and the finesse it displayed conveyed the essence of the character, revealed to us just before the fight, and it fit right in with the updated moveset and new ranged weapon (a chained hook) Geralt is now equipped with.
The most impressive part of Songs of the Past is how stunning it looks, both by design and thanks to the changes brought by another surprise from CD Projekt Red—a full remaster of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, announced at Gamescom and set to drop on September 29, 2026. The remaster includes graphics updates, improved combat and mount handling, new finishers, a fully reworked skill tree, and more varied NPC behaviour, among numerous other tweaks and improvements. There is as of yet no information on the PC specs required to run the remastered version to its full potential.
The remaster will be free for all owners of The Witcher 3. The previous two expansions will also become free for all who own the base game—another way CDPR is enticing players to come back to the Continent before Geralt eventually passes the baton to Ciri in The Witcher 4.
The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past expansion is scheduled to release some time in 2027.
Header image credit: CDPR
