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General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 07, 2015
Two full-blown expansions for the epic RPG.




The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is almost here. That means the game is pretty much finished, and the devs are about to take a deep breath while CD-presses and hype machines slowly wind up to take things through the home stretch. It's not gold yet, but now that development is coming to an end, the CD PROJEKT RED team is ready to start their work on two new, ambitious monster-hunting expansions.

The expansions will be called <span class="bold">Hearts of Stone</span>, and <span class="bold">Blood and Wine</span>. Combined, they'll offer over 30 hours of new adventures for Geralt, and the latter introduces a whole new major area to roam. More items, gear, and characters (including a few familiar faces) will all be crafted with the same attention to detail as the game itself.
<span class="bold">Hearts of Stone</span> is a 10-hour adventure across the wilds of No Man's Land and the nooks of Oxenfurt. The secretive Man of Glass has a contract for you - you'll need all your smarts and cunning to untangle a thick web of deceit, investigate the mystery, and emerge in one piece.
<span class="bold"><span class="bold">Blood and Wine</span></span> is the big one, introducing an all-new, playable in-game region to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It will take you about 20 hours to discover all of Toussaint, a land of wine, untainted by war. And to uncover the dark, bloody secret behind an atmosphere of carefree indulgence.







There used to be a time when buying an add-on disk or expansion for your game really meant something. That's what CD PROJEKT RED are going for, it's about bringing that old feeling back. You can take it from our very own iWi, (that's Marcin Iwinski, co-founder of CD PROJEKT RED):

"We’ve said in the past that if we ever decide to release paid content, it will be vast in size and represent real value for the money. Both of our expansions offer more hours of gameplay than quite a few standalone games out there.”

Hearts of Stone is expected to premiere this October, while Blood and Wine is slated for release in the first quarter of 2016, so there's still plenty of time ahead. We're offering you the <span class="bold">Expansion Pass</span> now - it's a chance to pre-order the two expansions and even show your support for the devs. But we can't stress Marcin Iwinski's words enough:

“Don’t buy it if you have any doubts. Wait for reviews or play The Witcher and see if you like it first. As always, it’s your call."







The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is just over a month away, and you can pre-order the game right now - it's a particularly great deal if you own the previous Witcher games and take advantage of the additional fan discount (both The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings are 80% off right now!). You can also take a rather unique refresher course on the universe with The Witcher Adventure Game at a 40% discount, all until Thursday, 4:59 PM GMT.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by Chamb
Posted April 09, 2015
high rated
Hello Everyone,

First of all let me thank you for your feedback. Although a bit harsh at times, it is always very passionate, emotional and we really do appreciate it.

I wanted to add a few words to the original press release, which will hopefully shed some more light on the Expansions and the timing of the announcement.

Let me start with the Expansions themselves. The work on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is almost done and we are waiting for the final certifications. Thanks to it we were able to allocate part of the team onto the expansions. Yes, we have been thinking about it for some time, as with over 250 people on the Witcher team good planning is essential.

Rest assured, there is no hidden agenda or cutting out any content from the game. Both Expansions are being built at this very moment, from the ground up – hence the release dates long after the launch of Wild Hunt. We develop them in-house by the same team, which was working on Wild Hunt. This is the best guarantee we can give you that our goal is to deliver both the story and production values on par with the main game.

Now, on the timing of the announcement - in other words “why now” and not - let’s say – “a few months after the release of Wild Hunt”. The reason is very simple: we want to get the word out about the Expansions to as many gamers as possible out there. There is no better time for it than during the apex of the Marketing & PR campaign of the game. Doing it sometime after the release would mean that our reach would be much smaller.

Yes, we are a business, and yes, we would love to see both the game and the Expansions selling well. Having said that, we always put gamers first and are actually quite paranoid about the fact that whatever we offer is honest, of highest quality, and represents good value for your hard earn buck.

Yes, these are just my words. So let me repeat myself from the original release: if you still have any doubts -- don’t buy the Expansions. Wait for reviews or play The Witcher and see if you like it first. As always, it’s your call.

Cheers,

Marcin
Post edited April 09, 2015 by Destro
Posted April 10, 2015
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Falci: ... * A disclaimer for my fellow forumers, I really understand the appeal of same price worldwide but as long as exchange rates exist and float like there's no tomorrow there will be no real same price everywhere. And believe me, I have been actively fucked up by those damned exchange rates since gog BETA!
Yes, the exchange rate influences everyone, even what GOG earns (they finally have to convert to polish money in the end). But the regional prices are still different, even if you convert everything to US$ and stay with it the whole time. So regional pricing does more than just eliminate currency fluctuations, much, much more. Although sometimes I have seen GOG to decrease the dollar price in a region if the local currency dropped versus the dollar in order to keep local prices somewhat constant. See the logs of magog for more data.
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timw: ...I will only buy a game once in the most complete version I can get and will not buy any additional pieces that were not included.
You can do so already: http://www.gog.com/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_game_expansion_pass

What you probably meant was that you buy a game in the most complete version as soon as the most complete version is released. That is probably what many people will do me included. However it means that some buying decisions are shifted from this year to next year. This might be a bit unfortunate for CDP. But then waiting for the complete version is a reasonable argument. If I would play the base game now I would not be sure if I would start playing the extension later on. The excitement might have faded, the interest in the story gone down or I might not have time anymore. Better to have everything in one go.
Post edited April 10, 2015 by Trilarion
Posted April 10, 2015
The only thing that really annoys me is the wording in the expansion store page "The Expansion Pass secures your access to two epic adventures".

Secures...

This makes it sound like our access to two epic adventures isn't definite unless we buy the expansion pass now. Like if I want to play the expansion adventures in 2 years time I won't be able to buy them and I'll be cursing myself because I didn't secure my access when I had the chance.
Posted April 10, 2015
That was a dumb move in PR and marketing. You, GOG, could have waited for the game release to announce that. I wonder how many pre-orders/sales will cost you. Because, now, most people are like: "screw that, I'll wait for the complete edition".
Posted April 10, 2015
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JMich: . Interview from 2011. <a href="http://www.gog.com/forum/general/witcher_expansion_0f2a2/post1005" class="link_arrow"></a></div><div class="small_avatar_2_h"><img src="//images.gog.com/40dfa99cc435607a35b61c3287180110e522e46b2a2e2ad05c84cd15c1e186b7_avm.jpg" width="16" height="16" alt="avatar" /></div><span class="quot_text"><span class="quot_user_name">Avogadro6: </span></span>Wrong game tho. ;) <a href="http://www.gog.com/forum/general/witcher_expansion_0f2a2/post1018" class="link_arrow"></a></div> [url=http://www.examiner.com/article/witcher-3-devs-don-t-believe-selling-extra-content]Here. 2013.
"We could sell extra content to gamers 'down the road,' but we don’t believe in that," he said, "we believe patches, fixes and additional content should be provided to gamers free of charge. Only something REALLY big, and something that will not make you feel ripped off, justifies a price tag."
As well as
"If we ever decide to charge you for something, we think you will appreciate what you get in return."
Posted April 10, 2015
Remember the expansion won't be out until couple of months after the game initial release.

People that bought the expansion won't be even able to play it when the game goes out !

So for those whose saying they'll buy the GOTY edition or whatever, then you'll miss a lot of time playing The Witcher 3 game itself, isn't THAT the reason you preordered ? :-)
Posted April 10, 2015
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Avogadro6: Wrong game tho. ;)
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JMich: Here. 2013.

"We could sell extra content to gamers 'down the road,' but we don’t believe in that," he said, "we believe patches, fixes and additional content should be provided to gamers free of charge. Only something REALLY big, and something that will not make you feel ripped off, justifies a price tag."
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JMich: As well as

"If we ever decide to charge you for something, we think you will appreciate what you get in return."
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JMich:
Well that's another questionable thing. Of course it's disputable what is "Something REALLY big". But somehow I feel like something doesn't match here when I see a "full-blown expansion" and " a 10-hour adventure" in one sentence....
Posted April 10, 2015
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wolfsrain: That was a dumb move in PR and marketing. You, GOG, could have waited for the game release to announce that. I wonder how many pre-orders/sales will cost you. Because, now, most people are like: "screw that, I'll wait for the complete edition".
but...isn't the main game, with the planned 16 DLC/patches and the 2 expansions, the whole game?
Posted April 10, 2015
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wolfsrain: That was a dumb move in PR and marketing. You, GOG, could have waited for the game release to announce that. I wonder how many pre-orders/sales will cost you. Because, now, most people are like: "screw that, I'll wait for the complete edition".
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Epitaph666: but...isn't the main game, with the planned 16 DLC/patches and the 2 expansions, the whole game?
An how do you know that they won't release any more expansions after the above two small expansions get released?
That is one of the reasons some of the people will wait for a GOTY edition.
Post edited April 10, 2015 by Matruchus
Posted April 10, 2015
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YrdenNerf: So for those whose saying they'll buy the GOTY edition or whatever, then you'll miss a lot of time playing The Witcher 3 game itself, isn't THAT the reason you preordered ? :-)
There are plenty things I can do with my time in real life plus if game related then I already have a pretty big backlog already ... so witcher can wait, no problem there.
Posted April 10, 2015
I get that people think it is a bit shady, but honestly i think that the free upates to the game being labeled as free DLC more like cutting from the main game than this Expansion Pass. But it's free and not exclusive to anyone in any way, so it is a nice excuse to boot up the game even when you are done.

That said the game isn't even gold yet and after all these delays i am pretty sure these expansions are just that. Great stories that the developers couldn't tell in the main game at release.
Also in the press release they tell gamers that are in doubt to wait for reviews etc and there is no pre order bonuses added to this Expansion Pass to bar you from missing out on anything if you want to wait.

I welcome 30 hours of content to boot up the game again for a very nice price. Thanks CDP sticking with what you say.
Can't wait to play Witcher 3 and this content later down the road!
Post edited April 10, 2015 by DizNL
Posted April 10, 2015
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alburl: The only thing that really annoys me is the wording in the expansion store page "The Expansion Pass secures your access to two epic adventures".

Secures...

This makes it sound like our access to two epic adventures isn't definite unless we buy the expansion pass now. Like if I want to play the expansion adventures in 2 years time I won't be able to buy them and I'll be cursing myself because I didn't secure my access when I had the chance.
Indeed. Not a positive connotation at all. Using the words "pass" and "secures" is marketing speak for "GET IT NOW OR ELSE YOU LOSE".
Not cool imo.
Post edited April 10, 2015 by MrAlphaNumeric
Posted April 10, 2015
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MrAlphaNumeric: Indeed. Not a positive connotation at all. Using the words "pass" and "secures" is marketing speak for "GET IT NOW OR ELSE YOU LOSE".
Not cool imo.
If you compare the styles you see a big difference. Marcin is authentic and emotional, the PR releases and store descriptions are like mechanically produced hollow phrases. One can see that Marcin has the authority to just go a bit out of the usual perspective and marketing speak.

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YrdenNerf: ...So for those whose saying they'll buy the GOTY edition or whatever, then you'll miss a lot of time playing The Witcher 3 game itself, isn't THAT the reason you preordered ? :-)
You have two opposing desires: Wanting to play as soon as possible and wanting to play all parts in one go. To satisfy the first desire one must buy the main game immediately (or pre-order), to satisfy the second desire one can wait with buying until all parts are released, pre-ordering however does not hurt.

So yes, one could pre-order now and wait until all expansions are released and then play. Surely a nice way to support GOG but who actually does that?

Since you cannot really have both, one of the desires must win and if playing all parts at once is more important then there is not much reason to buy anything now except as a token of support.
Post edited April 10, 2015 by Trilarion
Posted April 10, 2015
Btw. the share market seems to love TW3. CD Projekt SA shares are up 30% in the last 3 months.

http://www.gpw.pl/karta_spolki_en/PLOPTTC00011/#chart
Posted April 10, 2015
Pisses me off that something so heavily associated with Good OLD Games would use the "season pass" tactic that is so prevalent with modern games these days. I could put up with DLC (I just dont buy it), but season passes just me turn me right off modern gaming all together.
Posted April 10, 2015
CDPR what is 10 hours expansion? It's nothing. Please don't make that nothing. Make something full size.
"Expansion Pass" already sounds as "useless junk".
Post edited April 10, 2015 by dal
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)