An analyst says CD Projekt has a “master plan” to pull players back into The Witcher 3 with new DLC, and he lays out his reasoning in detail. Mateusz Chrzanowski claims he’s “100% sure” CD Projekt will release a new paid expansion for The Witcher 3 this May.
Will we be playing as Geralt of Rivia again this year? Even though The Witcher 3 seemed to wrap up its story with Blood and Wine, a fresh rumor suggests we could see substantial new content in 2026, potentially filling a key gap until the release of the highly anticipated The Witcher 4 starring Ciri. There’s still no official confirmation, but one analyst is now adding serious fuel to the fire by stating flat-out that new DLC for The Witcher 3 exists.
A New Witcher 3 Expansion in 2026?
We covered the rumor weeks ago, but it’s resurfaced with additional context. Mateusz Chrzanowski, an analyst at Noble Securities, says he is “100% sure” that CD Projekt RED will ship a new paid expansion for its flagship RPG this year. He insists this isn’t a random guess. Chrzanowski points to the Polish company’s latest financial report, where CFO Piotr Nielubowicz hinted that an unannounced project could be arriving sooner than expected.
According to Eurogamer, the backbone of the theory is CD Projekt’s so-called “incentive program,” a scheme that ties key employees’ rewards to financial milestones. Under that system, if the company reaches certain accumulated profit thresholds over multiple years, share-based rewards are triggered. Chrzanowski argues that CDPR is currently about PLN 700 million (€166.3 million) short of hitting the first threshold.
And with only a handful of quarters left, the company would “need something significantly bigger than a simple update” to close the gap. The analyst believes the DLC could be developed by Fool’s Theory, the studio handling the The Witcher 1 remake, and that it would function as a narrative bridge before The Witcher 4 arrives in late 2027 – at least, that’s his read. Leaked details suggest a May 2026 release, lining up with what he describes as a strategic market window.
Chrzanowski also puts real numbers on it: he estimates the new The Witcher 3 DLC could sell around 11 million copies at a $30 price point, bringing in a significant cash injection that could help fund the final stretch of development for The Witcher 4, which is being built on Unreal Engine 5. On top of that, Polish journalist Borys Nieśpielak says the DLC is real after checking the information with “several independent sources.”
CD Projekt has only said that it “doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation,” but the information attributed to Nieśpielak and Nielubowicz does fit together neatly. On one hand, Fool’s Theory would gain the hands-on experience and production rhythm needed to tackle The Witcher 1 remake with the right know-how, and on the other, CD Projekt would establish a story bridge into The Witcher 4, which is expected to kick off its marketing campaign around the middle of this year.
Even so, it’s worth remembering that CD Projekt itself has already alluded to this new content in the context of the incentive program: “Given our current progress, it is possible that the new content mentioned in recent conferences and reports will be released next year, which will impact our results and increase the likelihood of achieving the profit condition for the first stage of the incentive program.”
When Will The Witcher 1 Remake Arrive?
For added context, it’s worth noting that Fool’s Theory is also the studio behind The Thaumaturge, a dark fantasy RPG set in early 20th-century Warsaw that has earned “Very Positive” reviews on Steam. The studio is believed to have expanded from 60 to 100 people and is reportedly helping support development on The Witcher 4. If the The Witcher 3 expansion is indeed in the works while they’re also contributing to TW4, then the remake of the first game is likely still a long way off.
What we do know is that the remake aims to implement a living open world and remove parts of The Witcher 1 that feel outdated today. More than three years ago, we reported that CD Projekt confirmed The Witcher 1 remake wouldn’t arrive before the new trilogy. In December 2022, Adam Kiciński explained that The Witcher: Remake would leverage technology developed for Polaris, the codename for the new saga, meaning both projects would move forward in parallel, and once Polaris is ready, some of that work will be reused for the remake. With that in mind, don’t expect The Witcher 1 remake to land before 2029.
Source: 3djuegos
