CD Projekt RED's beloved fantasy action RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt may be an 11-year-old game now, but that's not stopping the studio from breathing new life into the 2015 title with a brand new Songs of the Past expansion that was announced this week. It's the game's third one, and will presumably lead into the story of its upcoming sequel The Witcher 4.

Very little was said about Songs of the Past when it was revealed, though its developers confirmed that it "will take you to the Path with Geralt of Rivia once more" and is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 in 2027. Notably, it's also being co-developed with Fool's Theory, the studio that made The Thaumaturge, contributed to Baldur's Gate 3, and is helping with The Witcher Remake.

On Thursday, however, CD Projekt RED did talk a bit more about Songs of the Past during its latest earnings report, with CEO Michał Nowakowski and CFO Piotr Nielubowicz discussing the developer's ambitions with the project and its overall scope.

"When it comes to the scope, I'd say it's actually a little bit closer to Blood and Wine [The Witcher 3's second major expansion]," Nowakowski said. "But this is super subjective, it really depends on your — how you're gonna play, what's your playthrough. But 'we're definitely making a proper big expansion,' is the message I would send out there."

Nowakowski was very adamant that Songs of the Past is not a DLC, as CD Projekt RED doesn't use that term interchangeably with expansions as many other developers do. "For us at CDPR, DLCs are small pieces of content we release for free–like the additional outfits for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Expansions, on the other hand, are major pieces of content providing lots of hours of gameplay, including new story, characters, etc," explained social media manager Marcin Łukaszewski recently.

Idris Elba famously made this distinction while talking about Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty: "Just to be clear, it’s not DLC. It’s an expansion. You know why? Because we do expansions. Big. Massive. Monster. We don’t do DLCs. And when we do, we give them away for free."

That lines up entirely with what I'd expect from something "closer to Blood and Wine," as the 2016 expansion for The Witcher 3 was so large and impressive that it beat entirely separate games and won Best RPG at The Game Awards that year. It was even grander than the game's first expansion, Hearts of Stone, that was tighter and more about story than open-world freedom in comparison.

Ultimately, CD Projekt RED is signaling that that kind of experience is what players should expect — a huge new experience rich with fresh content, to the point where it could potentially be thought of as a standalone game even though it's technically an add-on for The Witcher 3. That's incredibly exciting, and has just about everyone — me included — hyped to see more of it at Gamescom this August, and to jump back in Geralt's boots next year.

Are you looking forward to playing Songs of the Past when it comes to The Witcher 3 next year? Share how you're feeling about it below.

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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).