The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt has dropped its first story hints for the game's upcoming third expansion, Songs of the Past.

Officially confirmed yesterday, Songs of the Past will arrive for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2027 and once again allow players to take on the role of legendary monster slayer Geralt.

The expansion will launch 12 years after The Witcher 3's original debut in 2015, and 11 years after the game's second expansion, Blood and Wine, released in 2016. Fans expect its story to also act as something of a bridge to the upcoming The Witcher 4, which still lacks a release date.

"We won't give too much away right now because we want you to experience it as you play," senior community and social media manager Laura Beitzel teased today during a 10th anniversary livestream designed to celebrate Blood and Wine.

"But as a few eagle-eyed people have already seen over the past 24 hours, there are some hints waiting for you on a very important evening in Witcher lore, Belleteyn Night, in our Belleteyn celebration that we shared a few weeks ago. So... keep looking for clues."

Here, Beitzel is referencing a piece of artwork and a poem it sneakily posted on social media a month ago. It shows Geralt resting by a bonfire as Dandelion plays the lute while villagers dance. More importantly, though, it shows Geralt with a mysterious new sword — the same sword he's also holding in Songs of the Past's reveal artwork, which sports an unusual ornate curved crossguard.

Belleteyn has been referenced in The Witcher before, and is a fertility festival that takes place each spring. Here is the image's accompanying poem, in case you want to scour it for further clues:

On Belleteyn night, when tall fires rise,
Whispered wishes go through the quiet skies.
A lion cub’s fate is penned in the stars,
And lilac and gooseberries are never too far.
Tonight, there are no monsters to kill, no roads to roam,
Just quiet thoughts and wishes that try to find a home.
The White Wolf sits still, mesmerized by the dancing flame,
While Dandelion strums his lute and hums Geralt’s name.

"So yes, Geralt is holding a sword," CD Projekt's Amelia Korzycka continued, referencing Songs of the Past's key artwork. "It is a very important sword for the story and you will get to know it when the game comes out. So a few more streams before that when [we] reveal it."

Beitzel also discussed the size of the expansion — and as we heard previously, Songs of the Past is an expansion rather than a smaller DLC or add-on.

"Songs of the Past will be aligned with what you're familiar with in Blood and Wine, and what you've come to experience and expect from us when we do our expansions," Beitzel explained. "It's an expansion, let's make it clear."

Today's livestream also included confirmation that Songs of the Past will include more Gwent cards, and that CD Projekt was still working on cross-platform mod support for The Witcher 3, to launch at some point in the future.

Finally, CD Projekt's latest financial results have today confirmed a new overall sales total for The Witcher 3, which now stands at 65 million copies sold, up five million from its last count. That number seems likely to rise even further when Songs of the Past launches at some point in 2027.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social