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General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)
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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 07, 2015
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moonshineshadow: What prices are you seeing? For me it would be $ 25 (after I substract the regional price stuff).
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georgealmighty: 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 ;/
Hmmm... I checked it when the first thread about this appeared here in the forum and there it was already $25. Never saw it cheaper.
Posted April 07, 2015
Pardon my ignorance,
But does the new game card still include all the pre-order bonuses that were on the fancy page had?
(As in the one that had the video streaming at the top of the page)
And the new Expansion Pass was never mentioned until now?
Posted April 07, 2015
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darthspudius: Is that game still supported online? Great stuff.
I think it still is.
Posted April 07, 2015
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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".
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mkess: And the price in Europe is 5 Euro more. ... But we give you something additional, that you don't need ...
Depending where in Europe. That's the "regionally-priced" part.
Posted April 07, 2015
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georgealmighty: Skyrim comparison is spot on. There are only two differences/problems. Bethesda didn't announce any expansions before release. On the other hand, they (Bethesda) didn't have to. Everyone knows tha TES games will get expansions, and will get GOTY edition (even if its called Legendary for some reason). Same thing applies to modern Fallouts.

The problem is, Witcher doesn't have such history. Enhanced editions of both W1 and W2 had only minor additions (with all due respect todevs and writers) so CDPR can't ride on the customers familliarity.

Hence the announcement "WE ARE MAKING EXPANIONS, they will be good, we promise, oh and look, we are still giving you extra content for free <cough> horse armor <cough>. Sooo... maybe you'll support us and pay all this stuff in advance? You know us, we deliver!"

I understand the whole process, the development, the marketing, catching the (late) hypetrain, but still, it feels so similar to what other publishers are doing, that it's a bit sad. They will make money on this though. And come on, more money for CDPR = more games from CDPR :)
If they decide to take this route, I'm not sure if that is a good thing. I actually liked TW 1 more than TW 2, in spite of the better graphics. I just canceled my Pre-order and will wait for the full game. "Hearts of Stone" eh? How appropriate...
Post edited April 07, 2015 by jorlin
Posted April 07, 2015
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darthspudius: Is that game still supported online? Great stuff.
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Grargar: I think it still is.
Sweet, might go dust the disc off. \m/
Posted April 07, 2015
high rated
Poor poor practice and timing. With TW3's release already delayed how many times now?, it sure does not sit well that this content is announced today.

And as I said in another thread - How much more ridiculous can these invented terminologies get? "Expansion Pass"? Seriously?
What on earth is the "Pass" part supposed to mean in the context of defined and finite content?
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PaterAlf: A regional priced pre-order expansion pass from the people who once told us they are the cool guys, because they won't do all the crap that other developer's and publisher's normally do in the industry nowadays.

I hope it's a belated April Fool's joke.
It's the realities of the market.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by HypersomniacLive
Posted April 07, 2015
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jorlin: If they decide to take this route, I'm not sure if that is a good thing. I actually liked TW 1 more than TW 2, in spite of the better graphics. CANCELED my Pre-order and waiting for the full game.
I did the same. Now waiting for the full game, too. Maybe we can buy it next year, the same time.

Do you know, what the worst thing is?

I feel betrayed. And that feeling is not going away.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
Posted April 07, 2015
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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".
Unfortunately puts a damper on any celebration people were hoping for with the release of the 1000th DRM Free game. Also you forgot "with regional gifting restriction from Russian and CIS territories".
Post edited April 07, 2015 by stg83
Posted April 07, 2015
low rated
My God, the entitlement I see here sometimes never ceases to disgust me. Are you people actually shitting on a great, customer friendly company, with a proven, customer friendly track record, for DARING to ask for money to buy a significant expansion to their hard work? A request for money, I might add, that CDPR always said they would make as long as the content was big enough? Which is also completely optional and in no way will affect the game when it comes out next month? Or is half this thread just a week late to the April Fools party.
Posted April 07, 2015
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Glider_of_chaos: Funny thing is the game and season pass are differently regionally priced. Witcher 3 has big regional discount here In Russia but season pass is not really all that cheaper. As of now, season pass costs more than the game itself.
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mobutu: Just wait a little until they update the price for RU/UA/UZ .. i bet it'll be something like 9.99 or something
Using magog I see now it's $15.59 in UA and $16.69 in RU/UZ
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mobutu
Posted April 07, 2015
So, to sum up the reaction so far:

Those who want the Witcher 3 are still buying it...

Those who don't want the Witcher 3 are still not buying it...

Those who are unsure are still unsure...

So the only people who seem to have really changed their minds are those who made pre-orders based on the faith of CDProjektRed not being like every other developer in the industry and, and would instead actually be releasing a full game from the outset...

I would be interested to see if any people have actually decided to buy the Witcher 3 because of the expansion announcement.

Right now, the whole marketing strategy seems to be less "wasn't that AWESOME? Here's some more to buy!" and more "this is going to be AWESOME! Here's some more to buy!"

Still, that said, kudos to CDPR for announcing this now, rather than waiting and announcing it at release. That would really have upset those who pre-ordered hoping for a complete game...
Post edited April 07, 2015 by Davane
Posted April 07, 2015
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moonshineshadow: Hmmm... I checked it when the first thread about this appeared here in the forum and there it was already $25. Never saw it cheaper.
It seems it's dependent on the country. Another thing they changed is the regional price stuff. I didn't see it at couple of minutes ago.

Well, most likely I won't be buying it soon anyway,so the prices may change all they want ;)
Posted April 07, 2015
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TCMU2009: My God, the entitlement I see here sometimes never ceases to disgust me. Are you people actually shitting on a great, customer friendly company, with a proven, customer friendly track record, for DARING to ask for money to buy a significant expansion to their hard work? A request for money, I might add, that CDPR always said they would make as long as the content was big enough? Which is also completely optional and in no way will affect the game when it comes out next month? Or is half this thread just a week late to the April Fools party.
Honestly in some ways GOG/CDPR has been to good to their customers in the past... now anytime they do anything there going to be screwed either way, either by the people who hate change or the people who hate GOG isn't changing enough. GOG is has put themselves in a bad spot because now they will face scrutiny anytime they want to do something to grow there business.

Hence the amount of entitlement GOG customers now have....
Posted April 07, 2015
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TCMU2009: My God, the entitlement I see here sometimes never ceases to disgust me. Are you people actually shitting on a great, customer friendly company, with a proven, customer friendly track record, for DARING to ask for money to buy a significant expansion to their hard work? A request for money, I might add, that CDPR always said they would make as long as the content was big enough? Which is also completely optional and in no way will affect the game when it comes out next month? Or is half this thread just a week late to the April Fools party.
Yes, because they said last november, that all future DLC will be for free, for all customers who preorder now. I never preordered before in my life. That was the main reason I preordered this game.

Going back on this promise, they made for preordered game is enough for me to rethink the preorder. I canceled it, and will buy the complete game much later for far less money.

As far as I can tell you, this is also the last game I ever preorder.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
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Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)