It's been more than a decade since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was first released, but CD Projekt Red isn't quite finished with the game just yet. Songs of the Past, the game's third expansion, is set to arrive in 2027, bringing with it an entirely new region to explore, new monsters to hunt, and more stories to tell.

But how do you expand on a game as beloved as The Witcher 3 without upsetting its notoriously dedicated fans? And how do you keep things fresh while remaining faithful to a universe with decades of established lore?

IGN spoke to CD Projekt Red's level design lead Miles Tost and Songs of the Past writer Paula Meissner at the Lucca Comics & Games festival about creating a distinct new corner of the Continent, the surprising importance of local booze, and why even bringing characters back from the dead doesn't necessarily mean breaking canon.

IGN: Talking about Songs of the Past, from a pure level design perspective, is there a special new mechanical hook that you're looking at for players? And also, how does the environment actively change in a way that maybe veteran players of The Witcher 3 are going to be finding something new?

Miles Tost: Generally speaking, the introduction of a whole new region. And if you've played the base game and the other expansions, for us, these regions are really fun. I think they have a lot of answers for that question by themselves because we try to always make each one feel unique, not just visually, but in the sense of the traversal. Skellig, for example, has a lot of boat travel as a reliance. It's also very mountainous. No Man’s Land is a much wider space. And I think with the value of Lettin, you'll basically see also that as you move around — we're not introducing a new motion mechanic as far as I'm aware — but generally it's really important to us that when you are in an area, you have this distinct feeling of being in this space.

And this goes further culturally, for example. The people of Lettin have their own cultural backdrop. There are some British influences in the aristocracy there, but also we have very, very many Polish countryside influences there. You see that in the architecture, and we usually go pretty deep in thinking about the cultural identity of these spaces. So with Skellig, we have the more Viking-esque influences, but here, these people have their own alcohol.

Bracket... it's a kind of fusion between honey and beer. Other than it being a cultural export, of the area and the economical backbone of the place, it even changes how we think about monsters there.

It's a fun thing to mention because — Bracket is what it's called — it's a kind of fusion between honey and beer. It feels like such a small thing, but for us it's very important, because it draws a lot on what this region is. So for the production of it, you need honey and you need hops. And so you will find both of these in the area. And other than it being a cultural export, of the area and the economical backbone of the place, it even changes how we think about monsters there. So in the demo we've shown, we're basically introducing one new monster, the Swarmion, and these guys love honey. They use hornets as a means of protection, all that stuff. And so the logical reason there is because what kind of monster would live there? So the Swarmion makes sense. So you find that this seemingly small thing of these guys having their own alcohol, and it really has this huge effect on the entire area. And so this is a bit of how we're trying to make things feel unique and special. And it goes into the quest storytelling and all of that.

IGN: Obviously, The Witcher has maybe one of the deepest lores in fiction, with lots of established canon. With Songs of the Past, was there a particular piece of deep lore that was particularly tricky to untangle? And as you were putting all this together, did you have to bend any of the established canon to make the story fit?

Paula Meissner: We actually do have an amazing lore team in CDPR that we are cooperating with. And these guys are just amazing. They know everything, every detail from the books, from every game, from every piece of franchise content. So we do talk with them on a regular basis to make sure that we don't say anything stupid and that we stay actually truthful to the lore. But yeah, it is a tricky question because it touches on topics that weren't revealed yet. So there were definitely challenges, but I don't know how much I can say about those.

Miles Tost: The general thought is that we try to always also evolve and make things fresh. So it's really important for us to not really think in this way of like, “Oh, can we do this or can we not? If we do, how? How would we bring Regis back?" If we just told people before Blood and Wine, "Yeah, we're going to do it." A lot of the hardcore fans would probably go like, "That's impossible. He fucking vaporized. How would he?" And I think we asked ourselves those same questions, and ultimately I think we settled on something that works as an expectation where he's like, "Yeah, he's back, but he's like 10% of his power, and he's still recovering. He's only been able to recover because he's had help from this other higher vampire."

Geralt, by himself, is already like, "Hey, let's just bring him back from the dead." And it works as long as you can explain it and make it make sense. And I think this is really the approach that we're trying to take. So we don't really try to retcon things, but we do try to find cool ways to expand and build on the franchise and the established lore as long as we can find ways to explain it.

Paula Meissner: We often actually use discussing challenges with the lore team as [original Witcher author] Andrzej Sapkowski would do it. If you look at the books and lore of The Witcher in the books, it's such a mix of everything, to be honest. And even if you hear Sapkowski in interviews and people ask him these questions, he's often like “Whatever.” So yeah, this is the ultimate argument that we use sometimes, and sometimes it works.

With both Black Friday and the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 around the corner, console shortages have been in the news lately.

Xbox head Asha Sharma recently said there’s more demand than Xbox consoles available, and Microsoft told Xbox owners to trade in their dusty consoles. Meanwhile, over on the other side of the aisle, Sony wants to buy your PS5 for $400, and anyone in the market for a PS5 Pro may have to shell out as much as $1,400 to a reseller to get one.

Console stock must be getting pretty dire, right? To answer that question, I visited all the major online retailers to see what the status is surrounding console availability. And what I found was, with the exception of the PS5 Pro, every current model of every current console is widely available at manufacturer-suggested retail price (MSRP).

Featured in this article

Now, that doesn't mean that's how things will stay as GTA 6 and Black Friday creep nearer. And it's worth noting that those MSRPs have gone up in recent years. But at least at this pre-Black Friday, pre-GTA 6 moment in time, it’s not hard to find a new game console at retail price – unless you want a PS5 Pro. Let’s take a look at where things stand with every current model of every game console.

PS5 Pro Is Sold Out

Current MSRP: $899.99See at Amazon - (SOLD OUT)See at Best Buy - (SOLD OUT)See it at Target - (SOLD OUT)See it at GameStop - (SOLD OUT)See it at PS Direct - (SOLD OUT)

To kick things off, yes, new PlayStation 5 Pro consoles are sold out everywhere. You can still get a used one at eBay or marked up by third-party retailers at some of the links above, but they cost around $1,500, so buy at your own risk. Moving on…

PS5 with Disc Drive

Current MSRP: $649.99Get it at Amazon - $649.00Get it at Best Buy - $649.99Get it at Target - $649.99Get it at Walmart - $649.00Get at GameStop - $649.99Get it at PS Direct - $649.00

Even though Sony is doing away with discs starting in January 2028, the PlayStation company will still happily sell you a PS5 with a disc drive. This model of the PS5 is widely available pretty much everywhere, so pick one up at your favorite retailer. It's unlikely these consoles will get discounts during PlayStation's Black Friday sale this year.

PS5 Digital Edition

Current MSRP: $599.99Get it at Best Buy - $599.99Get it at Target - $599.99Get it at Walmart - $599.00Get it at PS Direct - $599.00Get it at GameStop - (Used only)Get it at Amazon - (SOLD OUT)

As you may have heard (in the previous blurb), Sony is doing away with discs starting in January 2028. If you’re ready to embrace that digital-only life, feel free to grab this one. At $599.99, it’s pretty much a steal in this (horrible) economy. However, it's worth noting that Amazon and GameStop are currently sold out of new stock of this model, while other retailers have it in stock.

Xbox Series X (with Disc Drive)

Current MSRP: $799.99Get it at Amazon - $798.00Get it at Best Buy - $799.99Get it at Walmart - $798.00Get it at GameStop - $799.99See it at Target - (SOLD OUT)See it at Xbox - (SOLD OUT)

The standard Xbox Series X with a disc drive is available at most retailers. It's worth noting that both Target and Microsoft are currently sold out, which could be what Sharma was referring to in her comments about supply not being able to keep up with demand.

Xbox Series X (All-Digital Edition)

Current MSRP: $749.99Get it at Amazon - $748.00Get it at Best Buy - $749.99Get it at GameStop - $749.99Get it at Target - $749.99Get it at Walmart - $748.00See it at Xbox - (SOLD OUT)

We’ve seen a lot of evidence over the years suggesting Xbox console sales are lagging badly behind PS5. The most recent hint that this is the case came from Capcom, which says only 8.6% of Resident Evil Requiem sales were on Xbox. But if you’re willing to throw in with Microsoft anyway, you can get an Xbox Series X at MSRP at most of the usual retailers, with the exception of Xbox directly.

Xbox Series S (512GB)

Current MSRP: $499.99Get it at Amazon - $493.32Get it at Walmart - $493.32Get it at Best Buy - $499.99Get it at GameStop - $499.99Get it at Target - $499.99Get it at Xbox - $499.99

The slightly less powerful Xbox Series S is available in two models that are identical in all ways except the amount of storage that comes in them.

Xbox Series S (1TB)

Current MSRP: $599.99Get it at Amazon - $598.00Get it at Best Buy - $599.99Get it at GameStop - $599.99Get it at Walmart - $598.00Get it at Xbox - $599.99

The same goes for the digital-only (and less powerful) Xbox Series S. It’s available at MSRP pretty much everywhere consoles are sold.

What About Nintendo Switch 2

Current MSRP: $499.99Get it at Amazon - $499.00Get it at Best Buy - $499.99Get it at GameStop - $499.99Get it at Target - $499.99Get it at Walmart - $499.00Get it at Nintendo - $499.99

Nintendo seems to have plenty of Switch 2 consoles on hand, but if you’re curious about how much it costs and where to get it, you can check out the links above. Like PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, it’s widely available at MSRP.

With all that said, if you’re considering picking a new game console this holiday season, you may want to do it sooner rather than later. It’s absolutely quite possible that Sony and Microsoft are simply looking ahead at the Black Friday sales rush when issuing their warnings about stock. It’s possible a bunch of GTA 6 fans will rush out to get a console when the game launches on November 19 (preloads start November 10, by the way).

And it’s looking like RAMageddon will only get worse in 2027, meaning we could see further console shortages or price increases in the near future. So grab a console if you need it, because they’re readily available at the time of this writing.