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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 07, 2015
I was already gonna wait for a Enhanced Edtion/GOTY/Complete Editon from the beginning.

Knowing a game like this it will have buggy issues.

I thought gamers these days already had that, "Never buy games at launch" mentality?
Posted April 07, 2015
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ThePunishedSnake: Yeah, search this thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=905447

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2i7gmx/the_witcher_3_development_issues_in_major_crunch

There was even a discussion on Witcher's forum (not GOG one, the official one from CDPR).
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JMich: Went through the thread, and I assume you mean Anaxymenes' posts. Now, other than the fact that there's no way to know what his position was, two things spring to mind.
1) The game that didn't exist was the game that CDPR PR first announced. It was, as the neogaf thread said, a Molyneaux like thing. Promise the stars, deliver a moon. Not sure if that is the case.
2) Which part of the game is not the promised one? Graphics? Story? Open world? Length?

And as to how that interacts with the announced expansions, it shouldn't. I still doubt that any programming work has been done on them, other than the very basics, since bug fixing would be the priority still.

Either way, thank you for the links.
Well, of course I don't know the truth. Only thing I know is Anaxymenes was approved by GAF moderators (aka they know he was involved with CDPR? How? I don't know).

But this make me think about the game, making me doubt, since the graphics downgrade already happened (yeah, even if CDPR says there's no downgrade, just look the Pre-E3 trailer and compare it with First 15 minutes gameplay trailer released by IGN yesterday).
Posted April 07, 2015
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kanakush: WTF !?! Seems like CD project has gone over to the Dark Side !!
Did a Sith Lord take over the company ?
Does that mean we get cookies? The Dark Side always promises cookies.
Posted April 07, 2015
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Davane: 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.
You mean cases like map packs and speech packs? Or how about [url=http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/TNT:_Evilution]selling content that was planned to be free?[/url]
Posted April 07, 2015
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darthspudius: Wall of text... holy crap man...
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Vestin: That's how I operate. There's a response to pretty much everything from this thread in there.
I know but like, break it up a little. I genuinely could not read that, my eyes couldn't separate the lines haha.
Posted April 07, 2015
Deleted by myself. Irrelevant.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
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.
The problem is that there IS NO PROOF that the content is big enough, or valuable enough, for the request that CDPR is currently making.

The fact that they put the following disclaimer in their announcement shows that they are aware that people might have issues with such a request before seeing any product.
“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."
It's not a sense of entitlement to express such doubts and why you are having them. Insulting people for having concerns isn't going to sway people to support CDPR either.

I think that we really need to get to grips with the idea that complete games are dead. There's no more leverage in a 'fire and forget' release strategy. Those that are expecting companies to do this are always going to feel let down.
Posted April 07, 2015
This looks like a proper expansion pack to me.
At least not like crap DLC with some new maps and other shit like that.
Call of duty im looking at you.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by Lodium
Posted April 07, 2015
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Vestin: The best part, however, are complete completionists. If the expansions never got made, they'd be happy with the base game alone as 100% of the content. The moment they realize that more stuff is in the works, that 100% shrinks to just a fraction of the total gamage they could have under the guise of "Witcher 3". Suddenly this is "less", even though it is the same goddamn game.
Well, you know that a steak and fries isn't a complete meal, it's missing the vegetables. And the wine. And the dessert. So a steak and fires is an incomplete meal, as is steak and fries and vegetables, as is steak and fries and vegetables and wine, as is steak and fries and vegetable and wine and apple pie. You can always add something to that meal, so it won't ever be complete ;)
Posted April 07, 2015
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d2t: Except many if not most of complainers here argue, that this is bad that they dared to announce it this early, before the game is out.

Lets consider.
option A - CDPR is transparent and announces expansions as they start working on them => bad CDPR, how do you dare to announce them this early, it is surely a money grab to fool people into buying DLCs!!!!!
option B - CDPR hides their plans for expansions until few months after release => bad CDPR, I would never buy this game if I knew it is not a complete edition, it was surely some money grab to sell more standalone copies!!!!!
Exactly
Posted April 07, 2015
It's regionally priced as follows (all credits to maGOG http://www.an-ovel.com/pages/magog.php):

$27.69 Australasia (AU)
$20.99 Central and South America (BR)
$19.99 Canada (CA)
$27.29 Non-EU Western Europe (CH)
$28.89 EU Central Europe (CZ)
$27.29 Eurozone (DE)
$29.39 United Kingdom (GB)
$27.29 Norway (NO)
$27.29 Poland (PL)
$16.69 Russia (RU)
$27.29 Sweden (SE)
$15.59 Ukraine (UA)
$16.69 Nine Former Soviet Republics (UZ)
Posted April 07, 2015
high rated
I already bought Witcher 3, a thing that (if you know me) it's very rare for me. Not having a job, what I manage to buy are only games bundled or heavily discounted, (my rule is to buy a digital game only when it's 75% off).
But there are exceptions, rare but there are. My two expections for 2015 are Metal Gear Solid V...and Witcher 3. Because I trusted CDPR on delivering a full, functional product, with no DLC (I hate DLCs). I bought this before the whole crunch mode thing, season pass and graphics downgrade.
Now I don't know what to think, for sure I won't pre-order any CDPR game anymore, even Cyberpunk 2077. I'll wait for the usual 75% off or more.
Posted April 07, 2015
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d2t: Except many if not most of complainers here argue, that this is bad that they dared to announce it this early, before the game is out. (...)
I sincerely believe that people ARE dumb enough to have no beef with the expansion being announced a lot later. In other word - they WOULD rather be lied to. This is understandable and works in other areas of life too. Who wouldn't rather hear "I love you and want to be with you forever!" over "I know that I might get over you in the future (or vice versa), at which point we will break up, but I appreciate the time we've spent together"? Probably only very VERY cynical people :|.

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Vestin: That's how I operate. There's a response to pretty much everything from this thread in there.
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darthspudius: I know but like, break it up a little. I genuinely could not read that, my eyes couldn't separate the lines haha.
I made paragraphs and even bolded some spots. Handle it, you goddamn casual ;P.
Posted April 07, 2015
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ThePunishedSnake: I already bought Witcher 3, a thing that (if you know me) it's very rare for me. Not having a job, what I manage to buy are only games bundled or heavily discounted, (my rule is to buy a digital game only when it's 75% off).
But there are exceptions, rare but there are. My two expections for 2015 are Metal Gear Solid V...and Witcher 3. Because I trusted CDPR on delivering a full, functional product, with no DLC (I hate DLCs). I bought this before the whole crunch mode thing, season pass and graphics downgrade.
Now I don't know what to think, for sure I won't pre-order any CDPR game anymore, even Cyberpunk 2077. I'll wait for the usual 75% off or more.
uh... you don't have to pre-order the expansion packs.
Posted April 07, 2015
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mkess: Projecting on the situation now: They started building this addons since Januar. 2015. Maybe parallel to bugfixing and testing the witcher 3 program.
Yes. Writers and artists are twiddling their thumbs, so they were asked to do some work while the programmers are doing bugfixes.
They could of course wait for the bugfixing to be finished and then start working on the addons, so the artists and writers would be working, and the programmers would be twiddling their thumbs.

Do take a look at Torment: Tides of Numenera, they do explain the workflow of a game pretty well. You start with writers doing the work, then have writers and artists, then writers, artists and programmers, then artists and programmers, and finally only programmers. Whoever isn't working on that game can be assigned to another task, even if it's extra content for the same game (like cosmetic DLC or short stories).
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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)