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
20
27
28
29
30
31
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 08, 2015
The only problem I have with this is that you're trying to manipulate me with titty.

Not cool, gog.

You know I don't do as well against titty.

Not cool.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by johnnygoging
Posted April 08, 2015
I have to admit I was a little shocked/confused by this reveal.
However...

1. The game is almost Gold, meaning that it is practically finished and is being polished before release.

Which means...

2. This is not content pulled from the full game being repackaged as DLC. It's an expansion pack, whether or not it has 'pass' in the title. In other words, CDPR has opted to go ahead and continue making additional content for their product, and like they've made clear in the past, will only charge for a substantial addition, not small cosmetic changes (like most developers would otherwise do).

That being said...

3. I understand people's concerns (that The Witcher 3 is somehow 'incomplete' without these expansions), but it's ridiculous to think that roughly 200 hours of gameplay isn't sufficient for a $60 game (or $48 for customers who own both TW1 and 2!), especially when you consider that many modern titles offer a 6-8 hr experience with tacked on or even no multiplayer at all (The Order: 1886 anyone?).
The only way one can justifiably consider the base game as incomplete is if...
a) The base game ends on a cliffhanger that is only resolved in the expansions.
b) The 200 hrs of gameplay ends up being mostly fluff that serves as padding for say, 20-30 hrs of quality content.

Obviously, we won't know for sure until the base game is released, which is why some skepticism is merited, and 'safe'. Still, many of the posts here have an air of entitlement, with outright baseless charges against CDPR.

Only time will tell, but I have a feeling CDPR will make good on their promises, and if I enjoy all/or most of the 200 supposed hours of the base game, I'll shell out $25 for two expanions.
Posted April 08, 2015
hmmm 9 pages huh. I guess this is not going to well. And now my sentiment: You must have known this was going to happen...

Look, I don't like season passes. I hate pre-ordering and I simply cannot stand dlc when the game itself isn't even out... So I don't like this announcement and frankly I don't really care that this dlc offers more then some games have in the main game.

That being said I am not really angry. I am a bit disappointed but I have been disappointed with this industry for a long time so nothing really suprises me anymore. You guys were actually one of the very very very few developers I supported with day 1 purchases (witcher 1 and 2 big box Retail version) and since I do not preorder I was thinking of buying it in the first few weeks after release (why not day 1: everything i see makes me believe you'll need a monster pc for it and my beast is running a bit slower these days, not by much but enough to check some user experiences).

Sadly now this will certainly not be the case. It's a principle thing I am afraid. I will not participate in practices in which I firmly believe will be the second downfall of this industry. It's probably going to happen but I will have no part in it. So sadly (for you, less so for me) This franchise and developer (so yes that will include cyberpunk) goes to the ever growing and now almost exclusive list of games that "I will buy in a steam sale for less then 10 euro'... the irony is that if everyone does this it will certainly excelerate a second crash... Let's just hope developers and publishers come to their senses before it's too late (on the other hand maybe it is what the industry needs)


EDIT: just to be clear: the issue I have is with the timing combined with their reputation. I would have had no issue whatsoever with this if they would have announced this a couple of months after release. I fully realise this might seems minor to some but pre-release dlc and stuff like this just doesn't work for me and leaves a very bad taste with many people for many years now. I am really suprised this is still a thing and the only reason I can think of is that people actually buy into this while it is rubbish in 90% of the games. Probably not for this one but like I said it's a principle thing...
Post edited April 08, 2015 by xxxIndyxxx
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
mchartman: 1. The game is almost Gold, meaning that it is practically finished and is being polished before release.

Which means...

2. This is not content pulled from the full game being repackaged as DLC.
Only if the Expansion Pass was a short-term decision and I doubt it. I don't say, that they cut content, but you "logic" has some flaws. ;)
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
Rincewind81: Do you remember preordering or just announcements of Expansion Packs even before the base game? This has nothing to do with the "old days".
Ahem (deja-vu).
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
mkess: The only thing I want is a complete game, nothing more, nothing less.
avatar
JMich: Get The Witcher 3 then. And if you find that the complete game doesn't sate you, get the expansion packs (or expansion pass) as well, for the extra salad of the steak dish.
Than you, but I wait now, until the game has aged properly. Like a good cognac or whisky. VSOP = GotY. :D
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
Matruchus: Its basically a preorder for upcoming dlc bundle. Bad announcement timing though that makes it look like a cash grab.
Not any different then what other companies do to propagate the preorder culture. As you can observe in the announcement post, right under Marcin's suggestion of a wait and see approach for the expansion there is another marketing blurb for a can't miss deal on preordering The Witcher 3 with just a little over a month remaining till the release of the game.

"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!)."
Post edited April 08, 2015 by stg83
Posted April 08, 2015
6 days too late.
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
Accatone: You remember expansion packs from the old days? Well, it's a bit odd to make available the expansion packs with a pre-order when the main game is not out yet, but I think it's a very positve approach to promise expansion packs with hours of additional playing time.
avatar
Rincewind81: Do you remember preordering or just announcements of Expansion Packs even before the base game? This has nothing to do with the "old days".
So? I said that I found it a bit odd but I think the pre-order thing is not bad at all. For example If id had promised Quake expansion packs with pre-orders, I would have been pretty happy! :)
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
mkess: Than you, but I wait now, until the game has aged properly. Like a good cognac or whisky. VSOP = GotY. :D
Aging and extra content are completely irrelevant. You could say the exact same thing the previous week, if age was the only concern of yours.

So, to say it once more, a game with extra content can be complete without the extra content, and enhanced by it. Claiming that a game with extra content available is incomplete without it is the same as claiming a Steak and Fries dish is incomplete because you have the option of getting a Steak and Fries + Salad dish.
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
Rincewind81: Do you remember preordering or just announcements of Expansion Packs even before the base game? This has nothing to do with the "old days".
avatar
JMich: (deja-vu). <a href="http://www.gog.com/forum/general/witcher_expansion_0f2a2/post432" class="link_arrow"></a></div> [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duel:_Test_Drive_II#Vehicles]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duel:_Test_Drive_II#Vehicles

Don't know the games, but it seems to be later or did I miss something?
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
Rincewind81: Don't know the games, but it seems to be later or did I miss something?
The image I post is from a magazine that was doing reviews on new releases, for Amstrad if I recall correctly. In the same issue there are reviews (small ones) for the base game and 2 of its addons, which does mean they came out in the same month, if not the same day. So back in 1989, you did get "expansions" announced in the same time as the base game.
Posted April 08, 2015
avatar
Matruchus: Its basically a preorder for upcoming dlc bundle. Bad announcement timing though that makes it look like a cash grab.
avatar
stg83: Not any different then what other companies do to propagate the preorder culture. As you can observe in the announcement post, right under Marcin's suggestion of a wait and see approach for the expansion there is another marketing blurb for a can't miss deal on preordering The Witcher 3 with just a little over a month remaining till the release of the game.

"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!)."
Yep, definitely right. The only unfortunate fact is that if users decide to buy the Witcher 3 with dlc bundle pack now they don't get any discount for owning Witcher 1+2 which is probably an oversight from gog employees.
Posted April 08, 2015
Oh good news! I will pay more money for a good game expansion and then I will wait until 2016 to play it. I like to play the complete version of the game. Plus my old gaming laptop needs to be replaced. I just have to wait until Asus or Auros will release a tough SLI laptop for less then $5k.... But in the meantime I will do my best to finish Witcher 2.
Posted April 08, 2015
I will try out the core game first, and then make a decision if I want to purchase your "expansions" or not.
Pages:
1
10
20
27
28
29
30
31
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)