CD Projekt Red revealed the next expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt earlier this year, with a brand new trailer debuting at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Titled Songs of the Past, the expansion will be the first major add-on for The Witcher 3 since 2016’s Blood and Wine. From what we’ve seen of it so far, it also appears that the expansion will be rivalling that in terms of size and scope — a detail we’re incredibly excited about.
In an hour-long hands-off session behind closed doors at Gamescom, CD Projekt Red showed off a small section of the expansion’s introduction. And what we’ve seen so far has got us excited for what may possibly be Geralt’s last hurrah.
A New Region and a New Mystery
Songs of the Past introduces an entirely new region to the game, Letten, which is located north of the Continent. Although Geralt has retired for some years following the conclusion of Blood and Wine, a request from Dandelion has brought him back into the fray.
Having woken up following a night of drinking at the local Belletyn festival, Geralt receives a calling from Dandelion. It later transpires that his friend has gone missing, with his iconic lute ending up in the hands of a drunk. After a little scuffing, Geralt recovers the musical instrument and heads on to Lettenhove, the home of Dandelion’s family.
CD Projekt Red says that Songs of the Past is heavily focused on telling a Dandelion-centric story, with a huge chunk of the storyline focused on the relationship between him and Geralt.
After a short boat ride, Geralt ends up in the family home of Dandelion, where we’re introduced to his grandmother, who clearly harbours some distrust in her grandson’s friend, and his cousin Lilla, who has been sheltered within the walls of Lettenhove for most of her life and yearns for a more adventurous life away from her home.
New Combat Tools and Revamped Skills
The demo showcased several new gameplay additions coming with the expansion and the free remaster. Geralt has a new weapon: a long silver chain which can attach itself to enemies and pull them in for a close quarters strike.
We also get a glimpse of the skills revamp, which has tweaked the UI to resemble more of a traditional skill tree, allowing players to take more of a purposeful approach to how they build Geralt as a fighter.
The demo ended with Geralt discovering a boss inside the Garden of Thorns, an ancient undead being called the Slumbering Knight. These new skills and weapons are put to the test as Geralt hacks off its limbs and puts it down for good. However, there is more to this enemy than initially meets the eye, hinting at it being an ancestor of Dandelion, and therefore teasing that his family history has more secrets to it than was let on.
Visual Refinements and the Free Remaster
Some of the visual refinements being added with the remaster were also elaborated on during the hour-long session. New water effects ripple out from underneath Geralt’s boat as he makes his way over to Lettenhove, which were later juxtaposed at night with the bright light of the moon reflected against the forest scenery.
It’s clear that CD Projekt Red sees The Witcher 3 as its magnum opus, a work of art that it can continue adding to with new content, upgrades, and add-ons even after releasing other titles.
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A Bittersweet Farewell
With Songs of the Past, it looks like this’ll be the final hurrah for Geralt as he has one last adventure, before Ciri takes over as the protagonist for The Witcher 4 and its proposed sequels. For fans, it’ll be bittersweet to see the character in action one last time, but for others, it’ll signify an important change in the way Witcher stories are told, and possibly for the better.
Songs of the Past will be available in 2027 for all current-gen copies of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, arriving on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Meanwhile, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered lands at the end of this month, coming out on September 29, 2026 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.