CD Projekt Red has shared a wave of new details about Songs of the Past, the upcoming expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, including why the project was internally delayed from 2026 to 2027.
Speaking during today’s earnings call, the company confirmed that earlier plans had targeted a much sooner launch window before the decision was made to push the expansion back.
“Our early plans assumed that Songs of the Past could be released this year. However, we decided that it will be launching in 2027,” management explained during the Q&A session.
The company later elaborated further, saying the delay was made alongside the development team in order to achieve “the best possible result from the consumer standpoint.”
That extra development time appears to be tied to the scale of the project as well, because CD Projekt made it very clear that Songs of the Past is being treated as a full expansion rather than a smaller DLC release.
“First of all, it’s not a DLC. It’s an expansion,” management stated. “DLCs are the smaller ones which we typically give for free. Expansions are the bigger and juicy ones.”
Way to put me on the spot for using DLC in my article covering the announcement, guys. Yeesh.
When asked whether the new content is closer in size to Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine, the studio said it leans “a little bit closer to Blood and Wine,” while also describing it as a “proper big expansion.”
According to CD Projekt, the project is already in an advanced stage of development, with around 190 developers currently working on it. Most of the development is being handled by Fool’s Theory, while CD Projekt Red provides creative oversight to ensure the expansion feels authentically Witcher.
And apparently the studio is happy with what it has seen so far. When directly asked whether management was satisfied with the quality of the expansion, the response was short and confident: “Yes, we are.”
CD Projekt also confirmed that Songs of the Past will launch exclusively for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with no PlayStation 4 or Xbox One versions planned. This is also why they also announced that the minimum system requirements for The Witcher 3 have been increased.
As for when we’ll next see the expansion, the studio says it will appear during Gamescom, although fans probably shouldn’t expect a public hands-on demo.
Instead, CD Projekt suggested it will likely follow the same format previously used for The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, meaning a guided gameplay presentation is far more likely than open playable sessions.
Perhaps the most interesting comments from the earnings call involved how Songs of the Past fits into the wider future of the franchise.
When asked whether the expansion acts as a prologue to The Witcher 4, CD Projekt gave an interestingly vague answer, saying it is “in a way” a prologue, while also stressing that its main purpose is simply delivering another great adventure for existing fans.
“It is in a way a prologue, although it’s not a prologue in a verbatim way,” management explained. “And yes, you can look at it as a way to maintain certain chatter on The Witcher 3.”
Speaking of The Witcher 3, it’s now sitting at more than 65 million copies sold worldwide. If even a small portion of those 65 million buy the expansion, CD Projekt Red will be looking at a very successful expansion.
Crazy to think it’s going to be around 12 years since it first came out that The Witcher 3 is going to get a third expansion.
How fucking old am I!?
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