Since this is a translation of an overseas article, there may be mistranslations.
https://wccftech.com/the-witcher-3-new-dlc-closer-to-velen/
The Witcher 3 New DLC Background May Be Near Velen, Not Zerikania, Hints Polish Insider
A well-known Polish insider has hinted that the background of the yet-to-be-announced The Witcher 3 new DLC will not be Zerikania.
While there's no official confirmation, it's highly likely that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will receive a new DLC expansion pack in the latter half of this year. Believed to bridge the gap between the third installment of the series and the upcoming fourth game, this new expansion pack was rumored to include new regions, with many speculating it would be Zerikania.
However, according to a well-known Polish insider, people are looking too far. This suggests that the new explorable area will be closer to existing areas in the game - namely Velen and the Northern Kingdoms.
During a livestream where he discussed past map design methods in video games, UV o grach, a former Gry Online journalist with close ties to the Polish gaming industry, made some remarks about asset reuse and filling empty spaces on the map.
https://youtu.be/vQ4mx6fpDeE?start=3334
These comments sparked numerous replies from viewers requesting updates on the unannounced The Witcher 3 DLC. While UV o grach didn't directly confirm or deny anything, he mentioned that people were looking at the horizon while the answer was right in front of them. This seems to put a nail in the coffin for previous information from late last year suggesting the new region would be an entirely new location like Zerikania, and instead points towards an extension of the Velen area.
Is the Dream of Zerikania Really Over?
Could this situation be akin to when Bilgewater in the novel criticized Geralt for mistaking a reflection on the water for stars in the night sky? It's hard to say definitively without an official announcement.
However, creating a completely new region from scratch for a small team working on an expansion pack intended to connect the story with the fourth game, long after the release of the original game, might be too much effort. As far as we know, the background of The Witcher 4 will primarily be Kovir and Poviss. These two Northern Kingdoms, located on the continent, are even further away from Zerikania than the regions covered in the first three games of the series.
Therefore, it seems more logical to expand upon existing areas within the game rather than devising a completely new and unique, potentially never-to-be-visited region, both from a world-building perspective and in terms of actual game development.
This new The Witcher 3 DLC is rumored to be released in May, so we won't have to wait long for more concrete news if it indeed exists. Hopefully, it will be an expansion pack worthy of one of the greatest open-world RPGs ever created.
▶ Source: https://wccftech.com/the-witcher-3-new-dlc-closer-to-velen/
