It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)
Pages:
1
10
16
17
18
19
20
30
40
50
60
70
74
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
avatar
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.
avatar
mkess: 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.
Yes, they said DLCs would be free. But they also said they would charge for a substantial amount of content, 15-20 hours worth. In fact, the way that statement was phrased implies he was talking about these exact expansions. It's almost like they're working people who expect to get paid once in a while.
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
PaterAlf: Wait, it's more expensive in the Czech Republich than in Switzerland? How exactly does that make sense???
I guess thats according to the realities of the market™ in Czech Republic. Another example of the usual arbitrary implementation of regional pricing.
Posted April 07, 2015
high rated
avatar
PaterAlf: Wait, it's more expensive in the Czech Republich than in Switzerland? How exactly does that make sense???
Well, imo, regional pricing rarely makes sense ... it's just another example of how bad is implemented
Posted April 07, 2015
high rated
I have nothing constructive to add to this, apart from also being sorry that GOG's 1000th release wasn't something more special. Though I suppose it could be argued that a CDPR item is only fitting.

It's amusing however to see the usual rogues gallery of arrogant posters arrive and preach to everyone about how their feelings are totally wrong. Thankfully they remain a minority here at GOG, and most members understand that feelings are just that - feelings.

Anyway, already pre-ordered TW3 a while back, and have decided I'll keep it in spite of this remarkably tone-deaf announcement. I won't be ordering any "Pass" type content until it's already fully released. Still no finish to Kentucky Route Zero yet.
Posted April 07, 2015
Good thing I didn't pre-order The Witcher 3 :) If you want to play as the big boys do CDPR, you must first be able to produce games of similar quality. And your games are far from it.
Posted April 07, 2015
Normally, i would nag. A lot. And even compare this to the season passes of godawful steam. Then i paused for a moment to think and calculate... 50 euros had been a normal price for a retail game here, once. And most expansions, back then, would cost no less than 30 euros. And, it is a triple A title. And, it is drm-free.

Still, i was spoiled from the previous FREE enhanced edition upgrades and all the FREE extra stuff. I will get my copy, even though a bit grudgingly... Still, it is a good price, even if combined. A very meh brand new game in steam, like that undescribable Dragonball Xenoverse for example, costs 70 euros, if you want to get it whole, complete. Who wouldn't pay at least the same price, in order to get the Witcher 3, whole, complete, and DRM-FREE, too?? Even if i will bleed, because now my wallet is dangerously thin, i am going to get it...
Post edited April 07, 2015 by KiNgBrAdLeY7
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
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!!!!!
avatar
georgealmighty: Exactly
Quoting this as it is the last post on the subject when posting : would you prefer Witcher 3 be delayed as far as Q1 2016 to be released full ? It's not "Day 1 DLC" they've announced here, and I consider this NOT DLC at all, but Expansions like it was being done in the "good old days" , this is roughly the same price as Diablo 2 expansion when it was released (and it was announced a while later, but was not really a secret at the time)
Post edited April 07, 2015 by yyyeeeaaahhh
Posted April 07, 2015
I am afraid I also cancelled my preorder. This is simply not acceptable.
Posted April 07, 2015
high rated
avatar
Vestin: ...
I don't think people are angry about announcement of the expansions - at least I hope they aren't, aynway - I think people are angry for CD Project marketing taking them for idiots. It all started with the "16 free DLC on release", which doesn't make sense all by itself and I got a bit irritated by the move, as, surely, they're just ... You know, releasing a game. With content. ... Yeah. But now I see another such move where CD Project announces another 2 pieces of DLC, calls the "Expansion" and renames Season Pass to "Expansion Pass". It's all PR, and it's all extremely dumb PR - or clever, but negative at any rate. It's throwing a different coat of paint onto the same - yes, efficient and working - practices that everybody else in the industry does and trying to sell it to their following as something new and entirely different. I just have to repeatedly remind myself that the PR department is not content creators' fault.
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
georgealmighty: Exactly
avatar
yyyeeeaaahhh: Quoting this as it is the last post on the subject when posting : would you prefer Witcher 3 be delayed as far as Q1 2016 to be released full ? It's not "Day 1 DLC" they've announced here, and I consider this NOT DLC at all, but Expansions like it was being done in the "good old days" , this is roughly the same price as Diablo 2 expansion when it was released (and it was announced a while later, but was not really a secret at the time)
I do not care anymore. I buy it later, after it is ready. ... and complete. I think, customers, who buy games here on GOG buy usually complete games. Old games, but complete ones.

That could be one of the major problems they have. And annoncing a DLC is like "Well, if they want to sell this DLC, I can wait for the complete edition. So long, preorder. I come back later."
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
georgealmighty: Exactly
avatar
yyyeeeaaahhh: Quoting this as it is the last post on the subject when posting : would you prefer Witcher 3 be delayed as far as Q1 2016 to be released full ? It's not "Day 1 DLC" they've announced here, and I consider this NOT DLC at all, but Expansions like it was being done in the "good old days" , this is roughly the same price as Diablo 2 expansion when it was released (and it was announced a while later, but was not really a secret at the time)
Yeah, but what if this season pass was included in the full game, then cut out for problems?
Why CDPR didn't announce this, let's say, in August, after three months of Witcher 3 being on shelves?
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
rmatec: I am afraid I also cancelled my preorder. This is simply not acceptable.
Did you get your money back?
Posted April 07, 2015
I don't have a problem with paying for decently sized expansions. I've been buying expansions since Warcraft 2 or earlier. I dislike paying for the little DLC packs that Bethesda introduced. I would have preferred the Witcher 3 expansions to have been rolled into one larger expansion pack. Splitting it up into two does give it a bit of a DLC feel though.

I was planning on pre-ordering the Witcher 3, some of the pre-order bonuses might be worth it. Now I'm debating on just waiting for a complete version later on. Now if the WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT, THE - GAME + EXPANSION PASS offer actually included the same percentage discount offered on just The Witcher 3, I might be persuaded to take a chance and pre-order the whole thing.
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
mobutu: 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)
Looks like the UK are even more screwed than Australia with these prices. :-(
Posted April 07, 2015
avatar
Ganni1987: When this news hits gaming sites it might leave some negative reactions.
Already has and from the comments I read it looked mostly positive.
Pages:
1
10
16
17
18
19
20
30
40
50
60
70
74
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)