'Proper big': The Witcher 3's new expansion will be 'closer to Blood and Wine' in scope

CD Projekt finally confirmed yesterday that a new expansion for The Witcher 3 is in the works, called Songs of the Past. The announcement brought months of rumors and speculation (and one cheeky non-denial) to a close—ironically, a day earlier than planned, because CD Projekt accidentally let the big surprise leak out on its own storefront. Nobody to blame for that one but yourselves, fellas.

Anyway, very little about Songs of the Past was revealed yesterday, but today we got a little more insight into what to expect courtesy of CD Projekt's Q1 2026 financial report, which is when the studio had originally planned to reveal it. In pre-recorded commentary, in fact, chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz did announce Songs of the Past, as though nothing untoward had happened yesterday. No sense redoing the whole thing just for that, I guess.

The more interesting tidbits, though, came during the Q&A portion of CD Projekt's financial call, during which co-CEO Michał Nowakowski emphasized pointedly that this is not a DLC.

"First of all, I cannot stop myself. It's not a DLC, it's an expansion," Nowakowski said in response to a question about how Songs of the Past will compare to previous Witcher 3 expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine—which the questioner referred to as DLC. "DLCs are the smaller ones which we typically give for free. Expansions are the bigger and juicy ones."

As for the comparison of scope the caller was asking about, Songs of the Past is "actually a little bit closer to Blood and Wine, but this is super-subjective," Nowakowski said.

"It really depends on how you're going to play, what's your playthrough. But we're definitely making a proper big expansion, is the message I would send out there."

CD Projekt had initially assumed that it would launch Songs of the Past this year, but ultimately decided to push it into 2027. But the studio also hinted that there might be other upcoming Witcher 3 content, still unrevealed, that will be out before the end of '26.

"For several quarters we've been disclosing that our pipeline includes some unannounced projects being in an advanced production stage, and one of those is the expansion being co-developed with Fool's Theory," Nielubowicz (I think) said during the call. "Our early plans assumed that Songs of the Past could be released this year. However, we decided that it will be launching in 2027.

"We obviously have some other content currently at an advanced production phase as well. And while it's obviously not on the same scale as the major expansion, we will plan to release it this year."

For the most part, CD Projekt is still keeping things under wraps, which is no great surprise given how far out Songs of Past remains. But it is setting expectations high: The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion is phenomenally good, almost an entire standalone RPG unto itself, that delivers one of the most satisfying conclusions to a videogame character arc ever. Even without saying anything else about it, invoking Blood and Wine in a direct comparison with Songs of the Past is a bold choice.

It won't be too much longer before we get a proper look at Songs of the Past: CD Projekt also said today that it will be showing off the expansion at Gamescom, which runs August 26-30. We'll be there.

Wind's howling... And it's taking us to gamescom in Cologne!Come join us in the entertainment area, where we will be showing Songs of the Past!See you on the Path ⚔️

— @thewitcher.com (@thewitcher.com.bsky.social) 2026-05-28T19:45:53.586Z

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