The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt turns 11 years old in May. Its last big update was a next-gen version released in 2022. But that hasn’t stopped speculation from mounting about a surprise expansion dropping sometime soon for the beloved open-world RPG.
Rumors first began to swirl last summer, when prominent Polish leaker Borys Nieśpielak said he suspected developer CD Projekt Red might reveal new content for The Witcher 3 at the Game Awards. And while this obviously didn’t come to pass, rumors of the expansion’s possible existence have only continued to pile up in the months since:
- During a November 2025 investor call, CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz implied the existence of an unannounced product (via Eurogamer), saying, “Given our current progress, there is a chance that new content hinted upon in recent calls and reports may see release in the coming year.”
- CEO Michał Nowakowski also chimed in about a mystery project in a Q&A session following the presentation, telling investors that a majority of the workforce at support studio Fool’s Theory is working on it (via IGN), later noting this amounted to over 100 developers.
- Polish Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski last month forecasted a “paid add-on” with a budget of 52 million PLN (or around $14 million USD), scheduled for release in May 2026 (via Dexerto). “The release should kick off the actual marketing campaign for The Witcher 4,” Chrzanowski added, according to a rough machine translation.
- The heart of Chzanowski’s prediction has to do with CD Projekt Red’s corporate incentive program for the studio, Eurogamer reports. “Currently, PLN 700 million [£144m] is needed to meet the first threshold, with only five quarters remaining,” Chrzanowski explained. “This implies the need for something significantly larger than just another update or a version for a niche platform.”
Why Witcher fans are talking about Zerrikania
Fast-forward to January 8. IGN Poland reports local sources had previously known about a potential expansion to The Witcher 3 for years. Furthermore, early rumors indicated the developers were at some point possibly interested in using an isolated, desert region known as Zerrikania as the add-on’s setting. Zerrikania is located to the east of the Northern Kingdoms (i.e. where most of The Witcher video game series takes place) and, according to an in-game book, is home to dragon worship, tattooed “warriors maids,” and man-killing flies. Scary.
With The Witcher 4 planned to release no sooner than January 2027, it wouldn’t be shocking if CD Projekt wanted to fill the gap with something to tide fans over, especially if the long-awaited sequel slips into the next console generation. Of course, this is all still speculation, but the evidence is certainly building up to something.
One thing we do know for sure is that sometime this year, The Witcher 3 is getting mod support on consoles. The update was supposed to arrive last year but slipped to 2026. Hopefully that’s not all CDPR has planned.
