Why is CD Projekt Red making a third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, more than a decade after the original game was released? A newly revealed sales milestone of 65 million units probably has something to do with it. That’s a hell of an installed base to sell to.
CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 3 sales milestone in a quarterly financial update this afternoon. It did so while referencing yesterday’s Songs of the Past expansion news and suggesting the new adventure might be many people’s first encounter with The Witcher universe, which is an interesting take.
“This third full-fledged expansion for The Witcher 3, previously mentioned as one of our unannounced projects, is currently at an advanced stage of development,” CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michal Nowakowski said. “The return of Geralt after more than one decade will be an excellent adventure, and a trip down memory lane, before we pass the baton to Ciri in the upcoming The Witcher 4
“As for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” Nowakowski added, “it reached another notable sales milestone, with more than 65m copies of the game now sold. This translates into a huge community of gamers for whom the new expansion provides an excellent opportunity to again hit the trail with the White Wolf. We also see great potential for Songs of the Past to become the first encounter with The Witcher universe, as well as the beginning of a fresh adventure, for many gamers, even as we await the release of The Witcher 4.”
The remarkable enduring success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has plenty to do with its five-star quality, but also with CD Projekt Red’s tireless support of the game. It has released an endless stream of updates to bring things like mod support long after release, and support for advanced, modern graphical techniques. After all, much has changed in 11 years, which is reflected in CD Projekt Red’s decision to significantly change the minimum PC requirements for The Witcher 3 for the new expansion’s launch next year.
The mission to spread The Witcher 3 far and wide ahead of the expansion saw the Complete Edition of the game released on Xbox Game Pass Premium earlier this year, too,
Actual details on the new Witcher 3 expansion Songs of the Past are thin, though we know it’ll star Geralt rather than Ciri, who’s leading The Witcher 4. When in The Witcher 3 timeline it takes place, though, we don’t know. There’s lots of speculation surrounding the sword Geralt is seen unsheathing in the expansion artwork as well. More details will be revealed at the end of the summer.