You Can Finally Pet Dogs in The Witcher 3 — and a Whole New Expansion Is Coming
Twelve years after The Witcher 3 first shipped, CD Projekt Red is giving players something they have wanted for over a decade: the ability to pet dogs. The feature arrives with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered, set for release on 29 September 2026, and will carry over into the newly announced expansion, Songs of the Past (GameSpot).
In the original 2015 game, Geralt of Rivia — the monster-hunting protagonist at the centre of the series — could not pet dogs. The lone exception was a single quest in which he rescues a dog from wolves. That gap became a running joke among fans, and CD Projekt Red has now confirmed it is closing it.
The studio revealed Songs of the Past with a trailer at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, where the annual games trade fair runs each August. The expansion is a paid add-on, and it is the third for The Witcher 3, following Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine — both of which originally launched as separate purchases in 2015 and 2016 (CD Projekt Red press release). All current owners of the base game will now get those two earlier expansions for free (CD Projekt Red forums).
Songs of the Past sends Geralt to Letten, a brand-new region, after an old friend calls him back into action. Players will face never-before-seen enemies and a long-dormant evil. The expansion also pulls in visual, performance, and gameplay enhancements from the upcoming remaster — a updated version of the base game with improved graphics and mechanics.
CD Projekt Red is co-developing the expansion with Fool's Theory, a Polish studio whose past work includes contributing to other Witcher-related projects (CD Projekt Red forums). Songs of the Past is scheduled for release in 2027 and will launch on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2 (CD Projekt Red press release).
For fans, the remaster on 29 September is the first chance to return to The Witcher 3 with modernised visuals and — at last — a dog to pet. Songs of the Past, arriving sometime in 2027, will be the first new story content for the game in roughly a decade.
