A single word did the job.
Over on X/Twitter, a player asked Marcin Łukaszewski — CD Projekt Red’s community and social media manager — whether the out-of-nowhere Songs of the Past expansion would serve up more Gwent. His answer: “Confirmed!”
Cue the party among everyone who let monster contracts rot in 2015 while they hunted down every innkeeper in Velen in search of a Foltest card.
The card game that outlived its own spinoff
Gwent began as nothing more than a diversion tucked inside the third Witcher game. Two years later, in 2017, it was spun out into a standalone title. By 2025 it had made the jump to a physical tabletop release. Not a bad career for something conceived as filler between contracts.
CD Projekt Red’s own pitch for it reads: “In Gwent, gamers clash with friends in fast-paced duels that combine skill-based play with bluffing, and careful deck construction. The game is played over a best-of-three series of rounds, as players unleash their hand by slinging spells and diverse units with special abilities, and use clever tricks to deceive their opponents.”
No shortage of studios have chased that same game-within-a-game magic. Almost none of the copycats stuck around. Gwent did — which is very likely why it’s being brought back at all.
A 10-year gap between expansions
Blood and Wine, the last expansion The Witcher 3 received, shipped back in 2016. With Songs of the Past aiming for 2027, the gap between the two will have run past ten years by release.
Nor is this a modest scrap of bonus material. The studio has positioned it as a full story add-on, hinting earlier this year that it will play out as a prologue.
Which means expectations need a slight reality check. This won’t be wall-to-wall Gwent. Still, for players who’ve been itching to deal another hand, that one word from Łukaszewski did the trick.
What the players are saying
From a fanbase that treats a card game as the real main quest, the response landed pretty much where you’d guess.
“Well, I hope whatever the main plot of Songs of the Past is, it’s not urgent. Because Geralt’s got more Gwenting to do, baby!” wrote one player.
Someone else was more economical about it: “Let’s gooooooo!!!!!!!”
The Witcher 4 is still on the board
Monster hunting isn’t finished at CD Projekt Red either. The studio confirmed earlier today that The Witcher 4 is still tracking toward a 2028 window.
Critics showered The Witcher 3 with praise when it arrived in 2015. Doug Cockle’s gravelly turn as Geralt carried the narrative, the RPG systems hooked fantasy fans of every persuasion — and plenty of players will happily tell you Gwent is the reason they stuck around.
Fuller details on Songs of the Past are under 24 hours away. A deeper look is already booked for gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live.
Until then, Geralt has decks to build.