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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
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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
Is this digital only? Or will there be a physical copy?

Can't remember the last time I bought an expansion
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stg83: Yes mission accomplished, preorder culture prevails yet again and we can now count CDPR as one of the proponents of it as well.
Now it's on the 4th place . 0_0
Post edited April 07, 2015 by ne_zavarj
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ne_zavarj: Khmm . Like it or not , the expansion pass is currently on the 17th place on the " popular " list .
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stg83: Yes mission accomplished, preorder culture prevails yet again and we can now count CDPR as one of the proponents of it as well.
It's been suggested in the past that the forums users are actually a minority when it comes to GOG customers. I guess this only reinforces that suggestion.
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And guess what? I buy these games never ever at realease, I wait until the GotY edition is on sale for 5 bucks.

I will do the same now with The Witcher 3. Good by preorder money for CD-Project.

Update:

Preorder canceled. I have solved my problem now..
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
People overreacting in this forum, that's unexpected.

I preordered yesterday and I'm happy to see that they have plans to expand an already big game with more content in the future.
As of now it's too expensive for me to buy these expansions as well, I'll wait until they'll sell them cheaper.
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While I feel pretty neutral about this announcement, it does make me curious: With them stating that before coupled with today's announcement it makes it seem like this was already more or less planned at that stage. How long ago was it that they said what I quoted from your post?
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Tannath: Yeah, I have no problem paying for expansions, I just question the timing of the announcement...
The announcement was timed to get more preorders similar to how other big developers and publishers do, so its working as intended.
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patthefatrat: Where did you read this? Could you post the source please? Thank you.
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/is_it_allowed_to_ger_witcher_3_this_way/post12
"Your order contains Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - preorder, which cannot be purchased as a gift in your region at this time. To proceed with your order, please remove Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - preorder. "
There could be another explanation:
Seeing as the 19 may release day approaches fast and maybe they think the game will not be finished in time and since they already postponed the game from february to may ... could it be that they decided to DLC the unfinished part?
Just saying ...
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bmgermani: I find it hilarious when people are falling for the "free 16 DLC" promo thing.

You can't possibly not realize that it's just fluff they're adding to the game, and calling it a gorillion DLC to make them seem like "such good guys", right?
That's the point here. They are really the same now as EA , Ubi and other big companies, they are just better at PR.
Wasn't the pass cheaper a couple of hours ago? O.o
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mkess: And guess what? I buy these games never ever at realease, I wait until the GotY edition is on sale for 5 bucks.

I will do the same now with The Witcher 3. Good by preorder money for CD-Project.
Which isn't a bad idea really. I sometimes do the same depending if it's a game I'm fine with waiting for.

I'm just saying this isn't some shitty plan that makes CDPR horrible. There is content that should be free and there is content that should be paid for, I don't expect anyone to spend months working on large significant content for free. I expect all those people in here complaining wouldn't want to work without compensation either.
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mobutu: There could be another explanation:
Seeing as the 19 may release day approaches fast and maybe they think the game will not be finished in time and since they already postponed the game from february to may ... could it be that they decided to DLC the unfinished part?
Just saying ...
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bmgermani: Wouldn't surprise me at all.

- So guys, we're not gonna make the deadline again...
- Hey... I got an idea... what if we cut these parts, and later sell them as DLC? Then we don't miss the release date AND we get more money!
-GENIUS!!
I told you, conspiracy!
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Hmmm...

The game itself is extremely pricey, and now they are asking for yet more money before the game is even released?!

I think that I will sit this one out and wait for a GotY edition.

The problem here isn't really about DLC and Season Passes. It's more of the issue that we are having to pay a great deal based entirely on faith, and unless you have already made the decision to commit to a day one release, it actually just puts you off taking a risk on the game if you are already on the fence.

I remember the days when expansions would consist of additional features based on fan feedback that worked to keep the game fresh. It is hard to see how such feedback could be incorporated into such pre-planned DLC.

In fact, I read this more as EP1: "Pay more for the content that we couldn't get working in time for the release" and EP2: "Pay more for areas that we decided to cut out of the game in order to meet our release deadline"

I'm sorry, but I am just not hooked on the game enough to want to invest in it BEFORE release. But then again, I figure that since I am not a Witcher fanboy, I am probably not the target audience here...
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If Witcher 3 gets good reviews, professional and non-, then I'm sure I'll buy it at some point. And if I end up liking it, and the DLC gets good reviews, it would then be natural to buy it.

As far as spending $75 on a game that isn't out yet? I'll take Marcin Iwinski's advise. I'm not angry about this, as some posters are, but I find the mentality behind it kind of baffling.