The Witcher 4 may skip expansions as CD Projekt Red focuses on a full new trilogy

CD Projekt Red’s next Witcher saga may not follow the same expansion model that helped make The Witcher 3 so beloved. Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski has suggested that the studio’s plan to release three new Witcher games within six years could make expansions for The Witcher 4 and its sequels difficult to fit into the schedule.

That does not mean The Witcher 4 will be smaller or incomplete. In fact, the message points in the opposite direction. CD Projekt Red appears to be treating the next trilogy as one large connected production plan, where each game needs to arrive within a tighter window instead of having long gaps filled by major DLC.

The comment came during the company’s latest earnings call, where Nowakowski was asked whether there was room for expansions given the studio’s ambitious project pipeline. His answer was cautious but clear. Releasing three Witcher games within six years is already difficult, and adding expansions on top of that would create another major demand on the development team.

CD Projekt Red may be choosing faster sequels over major DLC

The Witcher 3 set a high standard for post launch content. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine were not small add ons. They were large, polished expansions that gave players new stories, locations, quests, characters, and reasons to return to Geralt’s world.

That history is why this new approach may surprise some fans. Many players naturally expected The Witcher 4 to receive the same kind of treatment. But CD Projekt Red now seems more focused on building a full trilogy rather than pausing after each game to make large expansions.

This could be a practical choice. If the next Witcher games are close in size to The Witcher 3, each one will already require a huge amount of writing, quest design, world building, combat work, cinematic production, voice acting, testing, and technical support. Adding expansions between those releases could slow down the whole plan.

It also shows how much CD Projekt Red may have changed since The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. The studio seems more careful now about timelines, expectations, and quality. That is also visible in its handling of The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past. Nowakowski said the expansion was once planned for this year, but the team decided a 2027 launch would give players a better result.

For fans, the trade off is simple but complicated. Some may miss the idea of huge expansions like Blood and Wine. Others may prefer getting the next mainline Witcher game sooner instead of waiting years while DLC fills the gap.

The key question is whether The Witcher 4 feels complete at launch. If CD Projekt Red delivers a rich, polished RPG with a satisfying story and strong replay value, the lack of expansions may not hurt much. But if the game feels like it is holding back content for future sequels, players will notice.

For now, CD Projekt Red is not fully ruling anything out forever. But the current message is that the new Witcher trilogy is the priority. The studio wants to move through the saga with momentum, and that may leave little room for the kind of major expansions that defined The Witcher 3’s long life.