Geralt of Rivia is returning to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt more than a decade after the game first released, and CD Projekt Red finally showed what that means at Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25, 2026.
The new expansion is called The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past, and its Gamescom appearance was more than a logo reveal. CD Projekt Red showed the first public footage, confirmed its new setting and release platforms, and put the expansion beside another major announcement: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms.
The important distinction is that Songs of the Past is real, but much of what players want to know about it remains deliberately unrevealed. The footage establishes a setting and tone. CD Projekt Red has confirmed the broad premise. But the full plot, the exact structure of its quests, and many gameplay details have not yet been publicly explained in enough detail to treat speculation as fact.
Here is what Songs of the Past actually is so far.
Songs of the Past is a new Witcher 3 expansion, not a sequel or remake
CD Projekt Red is calling Songs of the Past a brand-new expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It returns players to the role of Geralt of Rivia for what the studio describes as the game's final chapter.
That matters because the expansion is not being positioned as The Witcher 4, nor is it part of the upcoming remake of the first Witcher game. It is new content built around the version of Geralt players already know from The Witcher 3.
CD Projekt Red says the expansion will introduce an entirely new region, new quests and new characters. It is being developed with Fool's Theory, the studio also working on the remake of the original The Witcher.
The expansion is currently scheduled for 2027. CD Projekt Red has confirmed releases for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.
The new region is Letten, and Dandelion is central to its identity
Songs of the Past takes Geralt to Letten, described by CD Projekt Red as an idyllic land of rural tradition with something much darker beneath its surface.
The most significant confirmed detail about Letten is that it is the homeland of Dandelion, Geralt's longtime friend and the bard whose songs, stories and exaggerated accounts have been part of The Witcher games from the beginning.
CD Projekt Red's official description says Geralt will return to the Path and travel to Letten to uncover a dark secret. The studio has also explicitly described the expansion as an authentic Witcher story built around choices and consequences.
That gives the title Songs of the Past a fairly obvious thematic connection to what has already been confirmed. This is a new Geralt adventure in the homeland of a character whose entire identity is tied to preserving and retelling stories.
But the exact meaning of the title within the plot has not been fully explained. There is no reason yet to assume that the expansion is about a particular song, magical music, lost memories or a previously established mystery unless CD Projekt Red confirms it.
The first gameplay footage shows a much different side of the Witcher world
The Gamescom footage gave players their first substantial look at the atmosphere of Letten.
Among the images reported from the trailer are women dancing in flower crowns during what appears to be a midsummer-style celebration, expansive wetlands and swamps, and a strange tree-like creature calling out to Geralt.
Those images matter because they establish the expansion's visual identity before they explain much about its story.
The Witcher 3 has always moved between crowded cities, war-torn villages, forests, mountains and islands. Letten appears, from the material shown publicly, to begin from a more pastoral place: rural celebrations, folklore and lush landscapes.
Then the unsettling elements appear.
That contrast is almost certainly intentional. CD Projekt Red's own description repeatedly frames Letten as an idyllic place hiding something sinister below the surface. The Gamescom footage visually supports that premise without giving away exactly what Geralt is investigating.
A mysterious curse is confirmed, but its nature is still unclear
One of the clearest official plot details is that Geralt will investigate a dark curse at the center of Letten.
That is more specific than simply saying the region contains a secret. CD Projekt Red has directly described Songs of the Past as a supernatural mystery in which Geralt works to uncover the curse behind Letten's darker side.
What has not been confirmed is the origin of that curse.
The creature shown in the Gamescom material has already invited interpretation, as have the folk celebrations and imagery surrounding Letten. But none of that is enough to establish who or what is responsible.
This is exactly where Witcher speculation can run ahead of the available evidence. The series has a deep catalogue of monsters, curses and folklore, which means almost any unusual creature can quickly produce theories connecting it to an existing legend.
For now, the reliable version is simpler: Geralt arrives in Letten and becomes involved in a supernatural mystery centered on a dark curse.
Everything beyond that requires more evidence.
Dandelion appears to be part of the story, but CD Projekt Red is still holding back details
The official announcement says Geralt returns to the Path alongside an old friend, while CD Projekt Red's wider Gamescom programming explicitly included a session titled “Geralt and Dandelion — reunion.”
That makes Dandelion's involvement more than a reasonable guess. Letten is also officially identified as his homeland, making him one of the expansion's most obvious connections to the new setting.
Still, CD Projekt Red has not publicly laid out Dandelion's complete role in the plot.
Is he the reason Geralt comes to Letten? Is the curse directly connected to his past? Does the expansion explore his life before the events of the games?
Those questions remain open.
The official material establishes the relationship between Geralt, Letten and Dandelion. It does not yet provide enough information to turn that setup into a complete plot outline.
The Remastered update arrives first, and Songs of the Past follows in 2027
Songs of the Past was revealed alongside The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, which launches on September 29, 2026.
For existing owners of the game on qualifying platforms, CD Projekt Red says the Remastered version will be available as a free upgrade. It includes improvements to visuals, performance, gameplay and other areas. The release also brings a native version to Nintendo Switch 2 and makes the game available through Battle.net under CD Projekt Red's newly announced partnership with Blizzard Entertainment.
The two announcements are closely connected, but they are not the same thing.
Remastered updates the existing Witcher 3 experience. Songs of the Past adds new story content.
That sequencing is important. CD Projekt Red is effectively refreshing The Witcher 3 for current hardware before sending Geralt into one more major adventure.
Reuters reported that the original game had sold more than 65 million copies by the time of the announcement, making the decision to revisit it commercially understandable as well as creatively notable.
The biggest unanswered question is how much Songs of the Past changes The Witcher 3 itself
Gamescom established that Songs of the Past is not a tiny add-on. CD Projekt Red is presenting it as a full-fledged expansion with a new region, story, characters and quests.
But the public material still leaves major questions unanswered.
The studio has not yet fully detailed the expansion's length. It has not publicly provided a complete breakdown of new gameplay systems, and the precise relationship between the expansion's new content and the broader Remastered improvements is still something players will learn more about closer to release.
That uncertainty is worth preserving rather than filling with assumptions.
What makes Songs of the Past interesting right now is not that CD Projekt Red has explained everything. It is that the studio has done something many fans did not expect: returned to a 2015 game with a genuinely new Geralt adventure.
The first footage points toward folklore, rural traditions and something unnatural beneath a beautiful landscape. Letten is Dandelion's homeland. A curse sits at the center of the mystery. Geralt is back on the Path.
For the moment, that is the story CD Projekt Red has actually told. The rest of Songs of the Past is still waiting to be played.
