Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion gets its first gameplay reveal

If I'd told you five years ago that The Witcher 3 would be getting a new expansion in 2027… well, you'd probably say "sounds about right." CD Projekt Red's masterpiece monster-hunting RPG received a veritable firehose of DLC in the wake of its 2015 release, including two full-sized expansions — one of which was good enough to go up for Game of the Year all on its own.

Even with a sequel on the horizon, The Witcher 3 refuses to die, a bit like its hundred-year-old protagonist. A while ago, the game's first expansion in more than a decade, the cryptically titled Songs of the Past, was announced — and we didn't get much more than that title and "it's coming."

While the expansion's title might put one in mind of a Guitar Hero knockoff starring Geralt (which I maintain would be great), this is sadly not to be. The big headliner at this year's Gamescom was a look at Songs of the Past, and while there's no musical action to be seen, it does still seem pretty cool. Songs of the Past features a brand-new region and a monster mystery set off by a festival gone wrong, pulling Geralt out of retirement for one last job. This is, I imagine, where we'll find out what he's up to during the events of The Witcher 4.

Songs of the Past doesn't launch until next year, but to whet the appetite, The Witcher 3 is getting a whole remaster first. Supposedly, it looks and plays even better, which you'll be able to judge for yourself given that it'll be free to all current Witcher 3 owners. Look forward to that in late September, just in time to start a whole new playthrough in preparation for the expansion.

More about The Witcher 3:

The eight-year-old game has stayed in the news well past its release: CD Projekt Red once pranked fans with fake expansion news, one writer spent a post examining the game's rivers, and the game itself got a next-gen console upgrade back when it arrived on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in December 2022.