The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past will be closer to Blood and Wine than a small DLC

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting a new expansion in 2027, and CD Projekt Red is already setting expectations high. The studio says Songs of the Past will be closer in scope to Blood and Wine, not a small DLC. That matters because Blood and Wine was one of the biggest and most praised expansions ever made for The Witcher 3, large enough to win Best RPG at The Game Awards in 2016.

Songs of the Past was announced earlier this week as the third major expansion for The Witcher 3. It will bring players back to the Path with Geralt of Rivia and is planned for Xbox Series X and S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5. The expansion is also being co developed with Fool’s Theory, the studio behind The Thaumaturge and one of the teams working on The Witcher Remake.

CD Projekt Red has not shared many story details yet, but the expansion is expected to connect in some way to the wider future of the series. With The Witcher 4 centered on Ciri, Songs of the Past could help bridge Geralt’s story with the next era of the franchise.

CD Projekt Red is making a proper expansion, not a small add on

During CD Projekt Red’s latest earnings report, CEO Michał Nowakowski said the new expansion is a little closer to Blood and Wine in scope. He also stressed that this depends on how each player approaches the game, but his main message was clear: the studio is making a proper big expansion.

That distinction is important because CD Projekt Red does not use DLC and expansion as the same thing. For the studio, DLC usually means smaller free content, such as extra outfits or small additions. Expansions are major releases with new story content, characters, quests, and many hours of gameplay.

That approach also matches how CD Projekt Red talked about Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. The studio treated it as a full expansion rather than a minor add on, and Songs of the Past appears to follow that same philosophy.

Blood and Wine remains the comparison fans will focus on. That expansion added Toussaint, a full new region with its own story, characters, monsters, quests, gear, and tone. It felt almost like a separate game built inside The Witcher 3. If Songs of the Past comes close to that scale, it could be a major reason for players to return to the game more than a decade after launch.

The expansion is also important because The Witcher 3 is no longer a new release. By the time Songs of the Past arrives in 2027, the base game will be 12 years old. Most games do not receive major new expansions that late in their life, especially not from the original developer. That alone makes this project unusual.

There are still many questions. CD Projekt Red has not shown gameplay, revealed the main location, confirmed the full story premise, or explained how much it will connect to The Witcher 4. More information is expected later, with Gamescom likely to be one of the next major chances for a deeper look.

For now, the message is encouraging. Songs of the Past is not being positioned as a small nostalgia update. CD Projekt Red wants players to expect a large, story rich return for Geralt, closer to the kind of expansion that made Blood and Wine so memorable.