Polish development studio CD Projekt Red has announced the new technical background for its upcoming content expansion, Songs of the Past, for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. As game director Jakub Rokosz revealed in an interview, the additional adventure simply wouldn’t be possible without the massive amount of work that went into the remaster of the main game. The revisions to REDengine 3 lay the foundation for the changed storage and streaming architecture that are now absolutely necessary in order to seamlessly integrate new missions and areas into the existing game structure.
These explanations make it clear that, despite the 2022 update, the original basic framework from 2015 has reached insurmountable performance limits. Only modernization of the engines of current generation consoles will create the necessary technological freedom in terms of memory management and data flow. Without fundamental changes to the code base, the development team would not be able to implement more complex scripts for new storylines or higher levels of detail in the game world without significant performance losses. The investment in the technical foundation only paid off a few years later with the implementation of full-fledged story add-ons.
The Song of the Past expansion brings Geralt of Rivia and his companion Dandelion to his native Latvia. In addition to fresh missions, new dialogue, and mechanical innovations, the pack expands the open-world experience of the base game. The fact that Polish development studio Fool’s Theory is remaking an offshoot of the first series and has been entrusted with developing the game highlights the close working relationship between the two companies.
The decision to build Songs of the Past exclusively on modern systems represents a clear break with older hardware. For a global fan base, this meant a continuation of the visually and mechanically complex nature of role-playing games that was no longer technically feasible on systems from previous generation consoles.
