The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release window, CD Projekt has confirmed. The announcement comes via a special video message from Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO of CD Projekt Red. Assuming CD Projekt hits 2028 for The Witcher 4, and the company sticks to its ambitious release strategy for this new Witcher trilogy, we could see The Witcher 5 in 2031 and The Witcher 6 in 2034. Nowakowski said CD Projekt will show the Songs of the Past expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at gamescom this week, including “a taste of its dark history” and new content. Red Game in developmentEslewhere, Nowakowski confirmed that The Witcher 4 will not be at gamescom 2026. “Our team here at CD Projekt Red HQ is hard at work on an entirely new saga, one with Siri at the helm. We have over 500 incredibly talented developers working to create something truly special for you. The Witcher 4 features a huge, immersive open world, intense, action-packed gameplay, and a deep and impactful story that we look forward to.” May it stay with you for a long time. Simply put, this is our biggest, boldest and most ambitious game to date.”Now I know you’re eager to learn when it arrives. That’s the question we hear from you all the time. So while we won’t be showing The Witcher 4 at the event and we’re not ready to share an exact date, I can tell you this: The Witcher 4 is targeting a release window of 2028. “I know it’s a bit of a wait and you’d love to play it sooner, but let the team do the cooking. It’ll be worth the wait. Until then, there’s plenty more of The Witcher to come, including Songs of the Past when it releases in 2027. And you can rest assured that the gamescom is also in our plans for the coming years.” Songs of the Past is the third expansion to CD Projekt’s fantasy masterpiece and will be released 12 years after the release of the original game and 11 years after the much-loved second expansion, Blood and Wine. CD Projekt is co-developing the expansion with Fool’s Theory, a team made up of “industry veterans” who worked on The Witcher 3. Here’s what we know so far. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – First details on Songs of the Past: Songs of the Past is the third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt It will be released in 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. CD Projekt has suggested that Songs of the Past will help set the stage for the upcoming The Witcher 4. While telling a standalone story starring Geralt set after the events of The Witcher 3, the new adventure will also act as a sort of prologue to The Witcher 4. Speaking to investors in May, Nowakowski was asked about how the expansion is being positioned in the franchise, why it will release in 2027 later than expected this year, and if any of the new CD Projekt’s trilogies of The Witcher games will also receive expansions, as The Witcher 3 has done. “First of all, we really wanted to offer a great experience to fans, a really cool expansion that will make people happy. “Of course, indirectly, yes, it’s a reminder [of the franchise for fans]. It is, in a way, a prologue, although it is not verbatim. [being] a prologue for the real The Witcher 4. Yes, you can see it as a way to have some chatter about The Witcher 3. Those are all side effects, additional side effects. The main thing for us, from our perspective, is to really offer a fun, high-quality experience to existing fans of The Witcher.” “We had a moment where our plans assumed that Songs of the Past would be released this year,” Nowakowski said, when asked why the expansion would be released later than expected. “We decided together with the development team that the game will be released in 2027, to be honest, to achieve the best possible result from a consumer point of view, which at the same time end, frankly, is the only thing that really matters.” CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3 Belleteyn teases, with Geralt’s new Songs of the Past sword visible in the bottom left corner. Image credit: CD Projekt. During a livestream aimed at The Witcher fans, CD Projekt gave a few more hints about the expansion’s focus, teasing the importance of Geralt’s new third sword, as glimpsed in a recent artwork released to celebrate a spring festival. Dandelion, Geralt’s bard companion, is also present. “We won’t reveal too much at this point because we want you to experience it while you play,” Senior Community and Social Media Manager Laura Beitzel teased during the 10th anniversary livestream designed to celebrate Blood and Wine that we shared a few weeks ago. Here, Beitzel references a work of art and a poem he posted on social media in April. It shows Geralt resting by a bonfire while Dandelion plays the lute while the villagers dance. Most importantly, however, it shows Geralt with a mysterious new sword, the same sword he also holds in the Songs of the Past reveal artwork, which sports an unusual ornate curved crossguard. Official art for The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past. Image credit: CD Projekt. “So yes, Geralt is holding a sword,” CD Projekt’s Amelia Korzycka continued, referencing the key artwork from Songs of the Past. “It’s a very important sword to the story and you’ll meet it when the game comes out. So a few more streams before that, when [we] Beitzel also talked about the size of the expansion. “Songs of the Past will be aligned with what you’re familiar with in Blood and Wine, and what you’ve come to experience and expect from us when we make our expansions,” Beitzel explained. “It’s an expansion, let’s be clear. It will be released at some point in the future. CD Projekt has yet to show off Songs of the Past in any way since announcing the expansion in May, so I’m hoping we’ll see a trailer and hopefully some gameplay.” on ONL on August 25. The show starts at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm UK time / 8pm CEST. (Skyrim hit the same sales milestone just a few months later.) Find him on Twitter at @wyp100.
