CD Projekt Red Shows Nearly 20 Minutes From The Witcher 3 Remaster and Songs of the Past

CD Projekt Red has shown nearly 20 minutes of gameplay from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered and the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion during Gamescom 2026.

The footage comes from the studio’s REDstreams programming and includes a 13-minute look at Songs of the Past. More gameplay is scheduled to appear during CD Projekt Red’s Gamescom 2026 streams.

CD Projekt Red is also framing Songs of the Past as a missing chapter within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with the story intended to complete the original game’s journey rather than sit entirely apart from it. It is planned as the third and final expansion for The Witcher 3.

CD Projekt Red says Songs of the Past will 'complete' The Witcher 3 story with Dandelion at its center — 'This is part of The Wild Hunt, and it felt like a chapter was missing'
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Letten and A Bed of Thorns

Geralt’s journey through the expansion includes a horseback ride across Letten, a new region connected to fan-favorite character Dandelion. The story begins during Letten’s Belleteyn celebrations. After waking up hungover the following morning, Geralt discovers that Dandelion has vanished, with the bard’s missing lute adding another mystery to the search.

The investigation leads Geralt to the de Lettenhove estate, where he meets Dandelion’s stern grandmother, his cousin Lilla, and his serious brother Gustav. Geralt and Lilla eventually follow the trail toward the Garden of Thorns and the story of Count Humbert de Lettenhove, an ancestor connected to an old family curse.

A Bed of Thorns, the quest that introduces players to the expansion, includes cutscenes and combat. Its story also reaches back into Dandelion’s life before he became the bard Geralt knows, examining his family troubles, past regrets, and friendship with Geralt.

One of the showcased cutscenes shows Geralt at dinner with several new characters, offering an early glimpse at the story accompanying the added gameplay. The presentation footage comes from the PS5 version of The Witcher 3.

Release date, platforms, and scope

Songs of the Past is scheduled to release sometime in 2027 as a separately sold paid expansion rather than free downloadable content. CD Projekt Red has not announced a month, exact date, or price. The company’s official announcement confirms that the expansion is planned for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. It will not come to PS4, Xbox One, or the original Nintendo Switch.

A 2026 launch had been considered before the team was given another year to continue development. CD Projekt Red is aiming for Letten to be roughly the size of Blood and Wine, which launched at $19.99, although the price of Songs of the Past remains unknown.

The expansion will also carry over the systems work planned for The Witcher 3 Remastered. The remaster will arrive as a free upgrade on September 29, 2026. Players with physical copies of The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch 2 can also upgrade to the remaster at no cost.

Exploring Dandelion’s homeland

Letten lies in northeastern Redania and avoided much of the warfare that devastated areas such as Velen. Its setting draws from England and southern Poland, with the revealed areas featuring lakeside villages, forests, farmland, rural festivals, and the de Lettenhove estate.

The countryside will be freely explorable and filled with quests, characters, secrets, and points of interest. Settlements will be denser than those in the original game, while NPCs will follow more detailed routines with additional dialogue.

During the gameplay presentation, shepherds moved sheep across roads, carts traveled through settlements, children interacted with adults, and villagers returned to their normal routines after Belleteyn ended. NPCs can also drive carts and use boats, giving the villages more activity throughout the day.

Lilla becomes Geralt’s new romance option

Lilla, Dandelion’s cousin, will accompany Geralt during much of the search. Flirtatious dialogue appeared during the demo, and CD Projekt Red confirmed that the expansion includes new romance content for Geralt.

The romance is optional. The gameplay demo used a colder response because the developer playing Geralt was keeping him with Yennefer, showing that players will not be forced into Lilla’s path. CD Projekt Red has not confirmed whether Yennefer or Triss will appear in Songs of the Past, nor has the studio explained how Lilla’s romance will interact with existing save files.

Geralt gets a silver chain and new enemies

The expansion will keep the familiar sword combat, Witcher Signs, alchemy, investigations, dialogue choices, and free-roaming structure. The remaster’s smoother combat animations, revised enemy behavior, improved movement, adaptive camera, and reworked character progression will carry over as well.

Geralt’s biggest new weapon is a silver chain inspired by the weapon used against the striga in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Last Wish and in the opening cinematic of the first Witcher game. It fills a role similar to the crossbow, allowing Geralt to throw it quickly or aim before attacking.

The chain can pull ranged enemies toward Geralt, drag creatures out of groups, and break defenses that swords cannot penetrate. In the A Bed of Thorns demo, Geralt used it against the Slumbering Knight to break its guard and create an opening.

New enemies include Swarmions, which attack in groups, and the Slumbering Knight, a skeletal creature covered in roots. Thorn Flowers are another archespore variant that can strike from underground and fire large poisonous projectiles. CD Projekt Red has not revealed every monster or boss yet.

Some quests will also reward players for paying attention to conversations across Letten. One puzzle shown during the presentation unlocked a dialogue option through information Geralt had learned from an unrelated NPC.

CD Projekt Red is working with Fool’s Theory

CD Projekt Red is co-developing Songs of the Past with Fool’s Theory, the Polish studio leading the remake of the first Witcher game. Several Fool’s Theory developers previously worked on The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3, including expansion director Jakub Rokosz.

The expansion’s core idea dates back roughly 11 years to the development of the original The Witcher 3. Senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki, CD Projekt Red narrative director Philipp Weber, and Fool’s Theory senior writer Ula Moitica helped develop or revisit the concept.

The presentation is marked with the warning, “Work in progress – Does not represent the final look of the game.” Even so, the footage offers an early look at the visual direction for the remaster and the expansion’s environments.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Developed by CD Projekt RED

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an open-world action role-playing game developed by CD Projekt Red.

Set in a dark fantasy world, the game follows Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter searching for his adopted daughter, Ciri, while navigating political conflicts and supernatural threats. Gameplay features exploration, combat, character progression, and branching narratives shaped by player choices. Widely acclaimed for its writing, world-building, and depth, it is considered one of the most influential RPGs of its generation.

• Genre Role-playing (RPG), Adventure
• Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
• Perspective Third person
• Modes Single player
• Release May 19, 2015
• Publisher WB Games, cdp.pl, Spike Chunsoft, Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Age Rating
• Time to Beat

  Main

  37.4h

  Main + Extras

  70.8h

  Completionist

  161.5h

PlayStation Store Xbox Store Nintendo eShop Steam Epic Games Store GOG Explore The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Official Site