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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 08, 2015
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Wishbone: snip
Too much insight and rational thinking in this post to be in this thread. Get out of here! :)

I'm not really bothered by this because PR sucks but it's a necessary evil to run businesses. Also, I'll wait for a discounted GOTY/EE and I've upgraded my GPU. :P
Posted April 08, 2015
I'm kinda new here and I like to lurk,but wow some of the entitlement in these comment's are sad.I mean lord these dude's are making a 200 hour game,plus two expansions for thirty bucks,if you choose to do so.People telling other people how to spend their money,you guys need a reality check seriously.The entitlement,don't make yourself sound like an asshole because that's what you sound like.

Oh and it;s cool your being smart with your money,but don't down the company and shit on them for trying to get some cash for their expansions.That you don't have to purchase.
Posted April 08, 2015
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mkess: Than you, but I wait now, until the game has aged properly. Like a good cognac or whisky. VSOP = GotY. :D
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JMich: 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.
You are an intelligent person. You know very well that your definition of a complete game is not the same as other people's. Yours is valid, theirs is valid too.

For some people the fact the publisher decided to call both the base game and the expansion pass using the same name (Witcher 3) makes them part of the same game and neither is "complete" without other.

You might play a game and decide not to do a certain sub-quest because it's boring (or expensive or whatever) and still consider your experience of the game full. Others will not consider it so until they have gone through every single sub-quest in the game.

And frankly the publishers know it. It's no coincidence it that it's called Witcher 3 expansion pass. Publishers know that many gamers are completionists and would want the "complete" game. And they bank on them paying extra for it. If it were really an unrelated piece of software they might have called it "Geralt's Softporn Adventure", but they did not.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by mrkgnao
Posted April 08, 2015
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Wishbone: snip
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Nirth: Too much insight and rational thinking in this post to be in this thread. Get out of here! :)

I'm not really bothered by this because PR sucks but it's a necessary evil to run businesses. Also, I'll wait for a discounted GOTY/EE and I've upgraded my GPU. :P
Yes, good news indeed. They give us time to upgrade our PC, and after that an even bigger discount in one or two years, waiting for the GotY edition. ;)

It's very nice of them.

The PR guys here must have taken the same classes, as the PR guys from Microsoft, who made the first XBones presentation .... ;)
Posted April 08, 2015
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Wishbone: (Post too long. End of Part 1)
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JMich: Buffer. Feel free to post part 2.
+1 sir, +1.
Posted April 08, 2015
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mrkgnao: You are an intelligent person. You know very well that your definition of a complete game is not the same as other people's. Yours is valid, theirs is valid too.
Here's my beef though. Their definition of a complete game last week was the same as mine. The game has remained the same, but by having extra content, it's no longer a complete game (in their eyes), but an incomplete or an unfinished one. Thus why I use the food analogy. Extra content for the game doesn't (usually) diminish the base one, it enhances it.

P.S. I do use the term complete and not full/definitive/GoTY for this exact reason. Steak and Fries is a complete meal, but it's not a 3-course meal.
Posted April 08, 2015
I just want to add: please don't start fights or start namecalling... Everybody has an opinion and no matter which side you are on there is no need to call other opinions stupid. If you like this pre-order then by all means explain why and buy it and hopefully enjoy it. If you don't: explain why and don't buy it or do and maybe be surprised or maybe it will confirm your opinion about it. And that is all that this is: opinions. So please respect each other opinions so we can have a civil discussion about this. (grrrr i am feeling old by posting this but i feel this is going to derail fast and I still like to believe this is a rather good community...)
Posted April 08, 2015
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xxxIndyxxx: snip
I was under the impression that we were still civil. Have we already started the name calling, or is this a preemptive request?
Posted April 08, 2015
I find it funny how GOG's forum is practically the only place on the net where you see people scream bloody murder (and quite ridiculously so) when it comes to this bit of news.

The timing is definitely peculiar, but none of this is worth grabbing torch and pitchfork for. Would you have preferred CDPR had announced the expansion a month after the game's release or would you just scream bloody murder then because you didn't know about it beforehand so you couldn't cancel your pre-order? Well, hey, guess what! At least you now have the option to make a more knowledgeable choice. Either way I bet this "outrage" will have a negligible effect on overall sales numbers. Just sayin'.

It is simply a business decision, very likely affected by current market trends. No matter what GOG or CDPR says, they're not your buddy, pal, bff, or what have you, although some people here definitely act like they ought to be. I sure don't look at GOG that way. It's a place where I like to shop because of the games on offer that also happen to be DRM-free (for the most part) and not to some misguided belief that a storefront and me are besties.

In the end, money is the only thing that matters. It's funny how that capitalism works, isn't it?
Posted April 08, 2015
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mistermumbles: I find it funny how GOG's forum is practically the only place on the net where you see people scream bloody murder (and quite ridiculously so) when it comes to this bit of news.

It is simply a business decision, very likely affected by current market trends. No matter what GOG or CDPR says, they're not your buddy, pal, bff, or what have you, although some people here definitely act like they ought to be.
If more people realized that there woudn't be so much riduculious overreaction here.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Mr.Caine
Posted April 08, 2015
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xxxIndyxxx: snip
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JMich: I was under the impression that we were still civil. Have we already started the name calling, or is this a preemptive request?
It is a bit preemptive sure but when posts start to use terms like entitled and "you guys", things tend to escalate rather quickly and as you pointed out it is still civil at the moment and i would like to keep it this way ;)
Posted April 08, 2015
I never asked for this. Sorry couldn't resist.

I may be wrong (sorry, haven't read all 23 pages), but I agree with those who say this announcement is very untimely. The worst time ever I could think of is the rising of first wave of rage, should Witcher 3 turn out to be disappointing.

I wonder, how many people actually invested money into upgrading their PC to enjoy Witcher 3, especially if they did that for "almost constant 60 FPS"? If such people present here, do you feel disappointed or mislead, because you could purchase an upgrade later, for less money? Given the chance that expansions would not be playable after game's completion (i.e. the end means the end, no post credits playing), therefore, entire Witcher 3 story may be incomplete without these expansions.

Only to think Marcin said this game will have no shitty DLCs...

However, there is one thing remains, the very definition of DLC. Since Bethesda coined this term through their infamous horse armor, we lost add-ons and expansion packs, so now everything is DLC, be that Courier's Stash, or Honest Hears. Take a look on Icewind Dale. It had an expansion pack, Heart of Winter. When gamers thought it was too short, developers released Trials of Luremaster, via patch. I wonder how they could be named, should they be released nowadays.
Regardless, I sincerely do not understand how to measure games in hours: what is involved into it? Completing all quests, possible in this playthrough? Gathering all herbs and killing all possible game in the area? Stealing people's belongings? What difficulty we are talking about? Who is going to play? There were games where I was playing on highest difficulty on PC, but I was able to complete them about twice as fast as my friends, who were playing on consoles (or even PC) but at lower difficulty. And I skipped no quests. Meaning: I'm not sure how "more than ## hours" defines quality of the pack, especially when you post old screenshots as reference. Yes, I suppose they are in early development, but we already saw those pictures. Several times. This year only.
But I digress. Since CDPR decided to mention "longevity" of new content, let's compare:
Witcher 3, said to be over 200 hours long. Cost $60. Hour costs $0.3
Expansions, said to be 30 hour long. Cost $25. Hour cost $0.83. and we speak about expansions, that use already existing assets.
I'm not marketing specialist, nor psychologist, but I think, should CDPR presented these expansions differently, there would be no negative reaction, even should they say their financial situation isn't that good and they need our help. Maybe I'm idealist, but I think in this case we would lend a hand and won't complain over price. Could be wrong - hard to be idealist these days.

P.S. Now I really have strongest deja-vu with Mass Effect 3 situation, where after demo release I was about to pre-cancel my order, but refrained from that, hoping to learn the end of the story. Guts were right that time, what about now? :D
Posted April 08, 2015
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mistermumbles: I find it funny how GOG's forum is practically the only place on the net where you see people scream bloody murder (and quite ridiculously so) when it comes to this bit of news.

It is simply a business decision, very likely affected by current market trends. No matter what GOG or CDPR says, they're not your buddy, pal, bff, or what have you, although some people here definitely act like they ought to be.
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Mr.Caine: If more people realized that there woudn't be so much riduculious overreaction here.
I find it hilarious actually,but abit sad at the same time.
Posted April 08, 2015
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xxxIndyxxx: I just want to add: please don't start fights or start namecalling... Everybody has an opinion and no matter which side you are on there is no need to call other opinions stupid. If you like this pre-order then by all means explain why and buy it and hopefully enjoy it. If you don't: explain why and don't buy it or do and maybe be surprised or maybe it will confirm your opinion about it. And that is all that this is: opinions. So please respect each other opinions so we can have a civil discussion about this. (grrrr i am feeling old by posting this but i feel this is going to derail fast and I still like to believe this is a rather good community...)
+1 for you

I'm really not surprised that GOG announcement those add ones, but like others I think that this was too soon...
Anyway, I'm sure that the Witcher 3 will be awesome game but HOPE that DLCs would have plot worth of our money.
Posted April 08, 2015
Don't really mind. It sounds like a valid expansion pack to me. I'll grab it at some point. The only real issue for me with Expansion packs in general is I don't usually play them after I have finished the main game. It's just one of those things. I have bought many DLC and Season Pass stuff, I think with the exception of two games I never touched the DLC content.
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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)