James is a games writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles of all genres. While he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, and League of Legends, he’s also devoted thousands of hours to single-player experiences, from in-depth RPGs to epic strategies on PC. When he’s not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.
Lovers of The Witcher 3 were delighted to learn that the game was making an unlikely return, with developer CD Projekt Red confirming the game’s upcoming release. Songs from the past DLC. This comes over a decade since the release of the last effort, Blood and winethe overall goal of which is to bridge the narrative gap between this and the upcoming fourth game.
The launch is planned for 2027, and that’s also very exciting, but not everyone will be able to participate in the proverbial party. Nintendo Switch players, as well as those still playing on PS4 and Xbox One, will not be able to purchase and download the DLC due to technical restrictions on those platforms.
It turns out they’re not the only gamers who might be missing out, with PC gamers potentially having to take some considerations into account, depending on their personal specs.
On the official website of Red Project CDthe developer has published a lengthy article detailing how the PC requirements for the game will increase, in order to “ensure smooth performance and future compatibility for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt And Songs from the past“.
This is clearly a necessary sacrifice to prepare for the future, with the list of minimum requirements now being as follows:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8 GB
- VRAM: 6 GB
- RAM: 12 GB
- Storage: 70 GB SSD
- Operating system: Windows 11 64-bit
Not only that, there are other strict requirements going forward, centered around the hardware you have installed on your PC and its interactions with Windows 11. The list of these is as follows:
- Windows 11 will be the minimum required operating system for The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 after Microsoft ends support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Without ongoing security updates, official platform support, and continued GPU driver support, we will no longer test our games on Windows 10.
- HDDs will no longer be supported, as SSDs offer faster load times, smoother asset streaming, and improved overall performance.
- The game will run exclusively with DirectX 12, allowing us to more effectively support continued technical improvements and modern hardware.
- Only processors supported on Windows 11 will be supported by us.
- Only graphics cards with continued active driver support for gaming on Windows 11 will be supported.
This is the least, and perhaps a little infuriating for those who don’t want to upgrade to Windows 11 or don’t have the money to upgrade their hard drives to SSDs. Either way, without it we just wouldn’t have the DLC, so it’s just something we’ll have to deal with as fans if we want to play it.
The liberation of Songs from the past was postponed to 2027 (without exact date), “to achieve the best possible result”, according to co-CEO Michał Nowakowski, which probably means “we are avoiding GTA VI as much as possible.” Until then, we’ll just have to wait to find out more about it, and the much-anticipated Witcher following.
Systems
- Released
- May 19, 2015
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Use of alcohol, blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content
- Developer(s)
- Red Project CD
- Editor(s)
- Red Project CD
- Engine
- Restart 3
- Cross-platform play
- Yes
- Cross save
- Yes
- Extensions
- The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
- Franchise
- The Witcher