In the wake of the announcement of The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past, CD Projekt employees have taken to social media to insist it must be thought-about an enlargement, relatively than DLC — even utilizing an IGN interview with Cyberpunk star Idris Elba to hammer residence the level.
Yesterday, CD Projekt introduced the third enlargement to its vastly profitable fantasy role-playing recreation The Witcher 3. It’s due out in 2027, 12 years after the 60 million-selling The Witcher 3 got here out in 2015, and 11 years after the second enlargement, Blood and Wine, got here out in 2016. The Witcher 3’s first enlargement, Hearts of Stone, was launched in October 2015.
We don’t have a lot to go on, save an official description that confirms Songs of the Past will return gamers to the function of legendary monster slayer Geralt of Rivia for a model new journey on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X and S, and PC. That’s left a void for dialogue round the dimension and scope of Songs of the Past, however every thing CD Projekt employees have stated following the announcement suggests followers can anticipate one thing fairly massive.
“Let me remind you the definition of the Enlargement,” Paweł Sasko, Affiliate Sport Director on Cyberpunk 2 and former developer on Cyberpunk 2077, its enlargement Phantom Liberty, and The Witcher 3 itself, tweeted alongside a clip of Idris Elba, who performed Solomon Reed in the 2023 enlargement. In the clip, which is taken from an IGN interview, Elba stresses that CD Projekt releases DLC without cost, however expansions are a special proposition.
“Simply to be clear, it’s not DLC. It’s an enlargement. You understand why? As a result of we do expansions — Massive! Huge! Monster! We don’t do DLCs, and once we do, we give them away.”
If Songs of the Past is an enlargement, then, we’re protected to imagine will probably be, as Elba places it, “massive, large, monster.” However different CD Projekt builders have additionally chimed in.
“For us at CDPR, DLCs are small items of content material we launch without cost — like the extra outfits for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” Marcin Łukaszewski, Neighborhood and Social Media Supervisor, tweeted in response to a fan query.
“Expansions, on the different hand, are main items of content material offering tons of hours of gameplay, together with new story, characters, and so forth.”
So whereas Songs of the Past is technically DLC as a result of it’s content material you obtain, it must be thought of otherwise. (One latest report pointed to the chance of a ‘Dune-style’ location for the new enlargement.) CD Projekt will host an official particular anniversary stream for Blood and Wine as we speak, Could 28. Maybe we’ll discover out extra there.
It’s a vastly busy time for CD Projekt. The Witcher 4 manufacturing continues, though CD Projekt has cautioned followers to not anticipate its launch till 2027 at the earliest. The firm plans an formidable six-year roadmap in which it’s going to additionally launch The Witcher 5 and The Witcher 6.
Whereas additional DLC for The Witcher 3 is now confirmed to be in growth, CD Projekt has dominated out extra DLC for Cyberpunk, suggesting followers will certainly have to attend for Cyberpunk 2 to return to its much-loved dystopian universe. And the wait seems like it will be important; Cyberpunk 2 is additional behind The Witcher 4, and CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has instructed Cyberpunk 2 gained’t be out till a minimum of 2030.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.