Songs of the Past Expansion Comparison

Witcher 3 players now compare three expansions, and they are not the same product. Hearts of Stone is the short, nasty novella. Blood and Wine is the duchy vacation that became a second game. Songs of the Past is the upcoming 2027 paid chapter: Letten, Dandelion, Blood and Wine scale, built by CD Projekt Red with Fool’s Theory, playable only after the Remastered upgrade. This page is the honest comparison — tone, map, price, and what you should replay — without writing as if the 2027 chapter is already on shelves.

Hearts of Stone shipped as a story-dense add-on with a smaller map. Olgierd von Everec and Gaunter O’Dimm still set the high-water mark for a Witcher deal-with-the-devil plot. You ride Velen and Oxenfurt edges more than you colonize a new country. Combat toys exist, but the memory you keep is a wedding, a painted world, and a choice about a man’s heart. It is the expansion you recommend to someone who says they only have a weekend.

Blood and Wine is the other extreme. Toussaint is a large, self-contained region with its own cities, vineyards, knightly sports, and a vampire tragedy under the wine. The ending can put Geralt on a farm. Mutations, grandmaster gear, and a bestiary that is not just drowners in sunlight made it feel like a sequel packed into DLC. If Hearts of Stone is a novella, Blood and Wine is a short novel with a map you still open years later.

Songs of the Past is aiming at that second scale in a different key. Letten is Dandelion’s homeland in northern Redania, near Kovir and Poviss. Developers have compared the region’s size to Toussaint, not to Hearts of Stone’s pocket of quests. The tone, from gamescom, is pastoral until it is not: Belleteyn fires, an estate dinner, then a Garden of Thorns that drinks Lettenhove blood. The story overview is Dandelion-focused rather than O’Dimm-focused or Duchess-focused. New Gwent cards are confirmed. A silver chain is confirmed. A third sword in key art is story-important and otherwise unexplained. None of that is a reason to call the expansion finished. It is a reason to stop saying “it will just be Hearts of Stone with better grass.”

Both older expansions were single-player, and Songs of the Past stays that way: one witcher, one valley. New Gwent cards are a side table, not a replacement for the Path. If you only care about the card game, wait for the 2027 list; if you care about Geralt, replay Toussaint first.

Price is the part storefronts keep confusing. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are now free for existing owners of The Witcher 3; new purchases get them inside the complete package. Songs of the Past is paid. The Remastered upgrade on 29 September 2026 is free and required. There is no Songs of the Past on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or the original Switch. Current-gen only: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2. Check platforms before you gift a copy to someone on last-gen hardware, and read the Remastered notes before you assume your 2022 next-gen patch is the same thing.

What to replay before 2027 depends on which muscle you want. Replay Hearts of Stone if you care about a tight moral knot and want Geralt sharp in dialogue. Replay Blood and Wine if you need a Toussaint-ready save, vineyard flags, and a reminder of how a large expansion paces side content. Use the getting started checklist for the practical order: Remastered, platform, then a save that can leave the grapes without missing the invitation to Letten.

Three expansions, three jobs. O’Dimm sells a soul. Toussaint sells a retirement. Letten sells a friend in trouble. Only the third one is still ahead of you.