Despite it being set to launch 12 years after the original game, The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past was apparently written well in advance of its reveal.

Speaking to Eurogamer, co-developer Fool’s Theory CEO Jakub Rokosz explains that, “The story was conceived, way back when, in CD Projekt Red by Ola Motyka and Philip Weber.” But the writer duo – who worked on the Witcher 3 base game – “had to put it aside for various reasons.” Rokosz explains that, “stars had to align” for things to finally come to fruition, and Fool’s Theory had to grow in size.

Rokosz says, “A few years later, the topic resurfaced and we started working on [Songs of the Past]. We’ve been digging deeper, and growing it since then, and that is how it came to be the expansion you see today.”

Despoina Anetaki, senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, explains that the Songs of the Past expansion is also motivated by a desire to flesh out Dandelion as a character, explaining, “We didn’t have that much space to explore him, and now we have the space to explore him, tell his story, and see him more fully. In the books, for example, he has these more philosophical conversations with Geralt – now we get to actually see a deeper side to Dandelion in the game, too.”

Songs of the Past is set to launch in 2027, and it will be the third expansion for The Witcher 3. Despite the somewhat random drop – you don’t exactly see game expansions releasing over a decade later very often – it sounds just as meaty as the previous Witcher 3 expansions. Its new location Letten is described by CD Projekt Red as a “fully realized open world” in its own right.

Now, why not read our The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past preview?