The Witcher 3 DLC confirms Gwent return as Songs of the Past trailer approaches

Gamescom will officially get underway later today, August 25, as Geoff Keighley kicks things off with this year’s Opening Night Live.

The showcase promises new glimpses at Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Tides of Annihilation, Metro 2039, Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, and more alongside some surprises.

Arguably the headliner of Gamescom, though, is The Witcher 3’s long-awaited new expansion Songs of the Past which will also have a presence on the showfloor for attendees.

We’ll be bringing you coverage of Opening Night Live. Ahead of the showcase though, one very exciting detail about Songs of the Past has come to light early.

CD Projekt RED’s community manager has confirmed the return of Gwent

Songs of the Past is said to be on par, size wise, with 2016’s Blood and Wine which, itself, packed 30 to 40 hours of content.

As such, Songs of the Past will feature a similar breadth of main and side content, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Gwent is making a return.

Even still, confirmation that Gwent is indeed featured in Songs of the Past has got us hyped.

The confirmation came courtesy of CD Projekt RED’s community and social media manager Marcin Łukaszewski.

“Wanna know the best thing about Witcher 3 getting a new expansion? More Gwent (I hope),” tweeted one fan on Twitter/X, to which Marcin replied, “Confirmed,” alongside the 100 emoji.

Needless to say, fans of the long-running franchise are hyped.

“That’s BIG,” one replied, while another added, “YEAH!” Others just shared gifs of jubilation.

Gwent, for the uninitiated, is a tactical in-universe card game within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt where players use faction-based cards to come out victorious in a clash between two armies.

CD Projekt RED

It can be enjoyed across the game’s open-world and pre-existing expansions, and Songs of the Past will continue this tradition.

There’s little else that we know about Songs of the Past at this point in time, although that will change with the Opening Night Live trailer later today.

It’s set to launch in 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S and will welcome back Geralt as protagonist ahead of the franchise switching over to Ciri in The Witcher 4.

Presumably, the narrative will explain this handing over of the baton, making the transition between the two mainline titles that bit more seamless.

The Witcher 4 remains deep in development and while it was showcased a number of years ago, it’s safe to say that it’s not going to be ready to launch anytime soon.

With Songs of the Past landing in 2027, the very earliest The Witcher 4 could launch is 2028 - and even then, it could place itself within 2029 or even 2030.

READ MORE: The Blood of Dawnwalker devs say rival The Witcher RPG could take over 100 hours to complete

Cyberpunk 2077 is now regarded as one of the best sci-fi games of all-time, but CD Projekt RED isn’t going to want a repeat of its rollout.

The studio isn’t going to launch The Witcher 4 before it’s ready so patience is definitely required.

That being said, we’ve got Songs of the Past to keep us busy which is a lot more than other franchises offer.

It’s not as if Skyrim has a new expansion to help quell the pain of the long wait for The Elder Scrolls VI.