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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
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
How long has this game been on pre-order? Surely it has set some new record?
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darthspudius: Weren't those games GFWL games though?
Unreal Tournament '99 is too old to be a GFWL game.
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darthspudius: Those were the ones with GFWL though, originally.
No not exactly, prime example Borderlands 2 GOTY edition which was released with Steamworks though one can certainly argue that its by no means a complete version of the game.
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darthspudius: Not quite, isn't Game of The Year editions a XBOX thing?
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Grargar: Why do you say so?
I can see why you would think this. It seems like a console thing, because when the XBox first started, it was taking bundled versions of PC hits at the time.

I am guessing that this will always be an issue, because the early adopter is ALWAYS going to lose out in the long run. Even before DLC, there were expansion packs and bundles that were designed to get people into the game later on, often costing maybe a little more than the game alone. It was common practice to throw in previous expansions, so you basically ended up paying for the same content over and over.

The real issue is about the perceived value of a game - and that is why this seems much like a cash grab by the developers.

Ultimately, people should just wait until the perceived value of the game matches what they are willing to pay for it. Witcher 3 can wait until it's a little less rich for my blood... But if you really think that the Witcher 3 and Expansion Pass are worth the $75+ being asked for already, then go right ahead.
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yyahoo: I see the GOTY terminology on all platforms. After the life cycle of a game is up, the publisher gathers all of the content for the title together into one package and calls it a "Game of the Year" edition, or something similar.

Some examples from Steam:

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War/
Fallout 3
Batman: Arkham City
Borderlands
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

On GOG we have:

King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Unreal Tournament
http://www.gog.com/game/deus_ex]Deus Ex/url]
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darthspudius: Weren't those games GFWL games though?
Some of them, not all of them.
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skinandbones13: How long has this game been on pre-order? Surely it has set some new record?
3 hours or something ...
high rated
The epitaph on the tombstone of "Good Old Games":

"The 1000th game it added to its catalogue was a regionally-priced pre-order season-pass DLC!"

The stonemason has left some space at the bottom, just enough to add, if need be:

"Regionally banned in Australia".
high rated
Precisely why I tend to avoid pre-ordering. Honestly, though, this is rather disappointing to see even CDPR make such a move...
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darthspudius: Weren't those games GFWL games though?
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Grargar: Unreal Tournament '99 is too old to be a GFWL game.
I thought it didn't get that name until it was re-released later? I could be wrong, wouldn't surprise me! haha
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blotunga: I kind of regret buying this game now.
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mobutu: It's not like you can't cancel the preorder ...
Yea, I know, but I was actually looking forward to TW3... I'll decide at some later point...
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moonshineshadow: What prices are you seeing? For me it would be $ 25 (after I substract the regional price stuff).
Right now it's €25 - €2,10 fair price package. I think I was seeing €17 before, but don't have anything to prove it ;/

EDIT:
So yeah it's same as for you - $25 after deducting fair price stuff
Post edited April 07, 2015 by georgealmighty
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darthspudius: I thought it didn't get that name until it was re-released later? I could be wrong, wouldn't surprise me! haha
It was re-released later... on 2000. :P
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mrkgnao: The epitaph on the tombstone of "Good Old Games":

"The 1000th game it added to its catalogue was a regionally-priced pre-order season-pass DLC!"

The stonemason has left some space at the bottom, just enough to add, if need be:

"Regionally banned in Australia".
And the price in Europe is 5 Euro more. ... But we give you something additional, that you don't need ...
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
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Tannath: Yeah, I have no problem paying for expansions, I just question the timing of the announcement...
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stg83: The announcement was timed to get more pre-orders similar to how other big developers and publishers do, so its working as intended.
*shrug*
This only goes to prove why I never ever pre-order anything and only consider getting AAA games at least 1,5 years after they are released. It's not even that much of a price thing anymore (one of the graces of having a job), it's more of a "I want the full game" thing, preferably without having to change computers every other year...
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darthspudius: I thought it didn't get that name until it was re-released later? I could be wrong, wouldn't surprise me! haha
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Grargar: It was re-released later... on 2000. :P
I meant in a big content pack with one of the later games, iv got it kicking around somewhere. I never saw it carry the name here atleast until then. It was about 2006 I think. Is that game still supported online? Great stuff.