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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
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
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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?
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xxxIndyxxx: 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 ;)
Debate about various issues is a great thing
I woud say its one of hummanitys strong points.
Doesnt mean that a debate cant overheat sometimes though, people sometimes need to blow off some steam.
But i agree with you that its best to keep it civil as far possible.

It does not look pretty if a debate turn in to this :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvW2KzCpTHU
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Lodium
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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?
Maybe this post which is akin to something you are likely to find in the comments section of popular gaming websites. I certainly haven't seen people force their opinion on anyone whether to preorder or not, as the notion of telling others how to spend their money is obviously absurd.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by stg83
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coreyblueexclusive: 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.
""Entitlement""

Anyway, I'll just wait for the GOTY or whatever it will be called when that comes out. I gots other games I can play until then.
As Always with these kinds of RPG's I am interested to know how the expansions/dlc will work. Do you keep your character (meanings with it's upgrades and level) and if so how do the enemies scale? I Always have some issues with games like the elder scrols where if you already completed the game and then buy the dlc it tends to be too easy unless you start a new game and play the dlc alongside the story, making the mainquest too easy (not so bad since you already finished it before)...
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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.
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JMich: 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.
Yesterday's game has indeed remained the same, as you say, but today CDPR has revealed that, contrary to many people's previous impression, it is not complete (according to their definition of completeness, not yours). The game hasn't changed, but the information about it has.

Your knowledge of the game's completeness has not changed as a result of the new information; other people's has. The new information has little effect on you; other people feel that they have been deceived until today.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by mrkgnao
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JMich: Steak and Fries is a complete meal, but it's not a 3-course meal.
You're exactly right with everything you wrote in this post.

Witcher 1 + 2 were both 3-course meals.

Until recently ("last week") Witcher 3 appeared to be a 3-course meal. Made by a company that was known for making 3-course meals. And good ones too. A fair amount of people might have pre-ordered this meal expecting it to be yet another (good) 3-course meal.

Today, it's not. It suddently became a 2-course (maybe even less - who knows how many DLC' - mind me - Expansions they'll toss at us) meal. That's maybe where your thought pattern differs from that of your opponents. Because quite frankly - isn't a 2-course meal considered incomplete when compared to a 3-course?
REMEMBER:

The Witcher 3 Dev on Making a Stand Against Paid DLC
I thought they said this game will have no DLC .... ooooh sorry its an ''expansion pass'' yes thats TOOOOTALLY different!
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coreyblueexclusive: 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.
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JustSayin: ""Entitlement""

Anyway, I'll just wait for the GOTY or whatever it will be called when that comes out. I gots other games I can play until then.
Yeah it's good to be smart with your money,I might do the same myself,but yeah people telling other people what to do and then shitting on the company,just rubs me wrong way.
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JMich: Steak and Fries is a complete meal, but it's not a 3-course meal.
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simda.gog: You're exactly right with everything you wrote in this post.

Witcher 1 + 2 were both 3-course meals.

Until recently ("last week") Witcher 3 appeared to be a 3-course meal. Made by a company that was known for making 3-course meals. And good ones too. A fair amount of people might have pre-ordered this meal expecting it to be yet another (good) 3-course meal.

Today, it's not. It suddently became a 2-course (maybe even less - who knows how many DLC' - mind me - Expansions they'll toss at us) meal. That's maybe where your thought pattern differs from that of your opponents. Because quite frankly - isn't a 2-course meal considered incomplete when compared to a 3-course?
It's all about perception I think. The game is still the same as it was but the announcement about the expansions leaves the impression that the game (that hasn't changed) isn't the same game anymore. Sure this is all subjective and factual probably not true (I say probably because the game hasn;t released yet and the industry has proven us time and time again it can;t be trusted) but the feeling people have about these things is still real. And this feeling has been around for a very long time so the timing of this announcement (even if it is within industry standard lines these days unfortunately) is pretty poor...
What of it?
I dont see anything wrong or any contradiction in that article regarding this Expansion.

It says :
Yeah, we are making a statement,” he added. “We, as gamers, would like to be treated this way, 'Hey, give me free DLC.' It doesn't have to be something huge. And I'm saying we aren't giving out huge stuff, we aren't giving tens of hours of storyline here, we are giving small bits of pieces that don't cost a lot.

10 hours of story mode is quite subtantial if you ask me.
I dont agree with the price tag they put on it though but thats just my opinion.
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JMich: Steak and Fries is a complete meal, but it's not a 3-course meal.
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simda.gog: You're exactly right with everything you wrote in this post.

Witcher 1 + 2 were both 3-course meals.

Until recently ("last week") Witcher 3 appeared to be a 3-course meal. Made by a company that was known for making 3-course meals. And good ones too. A fair amount of people might have pre-ordered this meal expecting it to be yet another (good) 3-course meal.

Today, it's not. It suddently became a 2-course (maybe even less - who knows how many DLC' - mind me - Expansions they'll toss at us) meal. That's maybe where your thought pattern differs from that of your opponents. Because quite frankly - isn't a 2-course meal considered incomplete when compared to a 3-course?
But surely in this case the initial 3 course meal hasn't changed? What they've done is added the option of a cheeseboard and coffee to the menu. :-)

l understand though that for collectors / completists this is a big thing, just like the extras in the XBoxOne Collectors Edition. You'd think that after the complaints about the FREE DLC's (unbelievable, I know!) CDPR would have learned a lesson and handled this a bit differently !
This anouncement has disturbed me a little, but I think it was primarily for the poor timing of the announcement.

I don't mind paying for additional expansions if they are worth it (ie don't go with blizzards 70% of the price of the original, 30% more content approach), but announcing this before the original game was released immediately had my mind conjuring up all sorts of fantasies about content being cut from the original game.

Now this is unlikely to be true, but if this announcement had come 2-3 months after the original game release (even if you kept the same release dates), I'm certain the response would of been far more accepting.

Regional pricing is a bad thing and this announcement concerns me. However as long as ALL GOG's games stay DRM free, they are the clear choice for me.

That being said, I wish people would stop harrassing those that have vocal negative opinions about this release announcement. I want people to scream and shout and feel entitled to certain expectations of GOG. Without these people there is nothing stopping GOG from believing all that they are doing is completely correct and right and making everyone happy.

Irish goodbyes aren't good for GOG as well if they are suddenly losing customers and have no idea why.
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LynetteC: l understand though that for collectors / completists this is a big thing, just like the extras in the XBoxOne Collectors Edition. You'd think that after the complaints about the FREE DLC's (unbelievable, I know!) CDPR would have learned a lesson and handled this a bit differently !
And the best thing is, they post their "Good News" posts at the end of their working day, so that the shitstorm has time to grow overnight. :)

... they are pretty learn resistant.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by mkess
Just five days ago GOG were saviors of the DRM free fight when they unveiled their "reclaim" initiative. Now they're "worse than EA," "fallen to the dark side," "writing their own epitaph," or my favorite: "adding DLC after they said there would be NO DLC!!!111" Also, Galaxy is now a form of DRM. Even though it wasn't last week.