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General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)
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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
hurr I donąt want more of the game durr

I hope most of realize if it wasn't for those expansions, this content would NEVER made to the main game?

Even if it was cut in some portion from the main game, if they wouldn't want to cash in on it, they would simply leave it cut.

Those ideologicl wars and stupidity is all GOG's fault, though. If they weren't pretending "we are so much different than industry standard", there wouldn't be so much whining.

They'd be better off focusing on making good games instead of making one PR stunt after another.
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Matruchus: Definitely. If a company sells itself as a champion of always free dlc and then announces payable dlc
and that's mostly because people can't read.

I remember them saying even before The Witcher 2 that they find it possible to make paid expansions if there's enough content for that. they only said they are not going to charge anyone for horse armour.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by keeveek
Posted April 08, 2015
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zeo: ...Also does this mean Geralt doesn't die at the end of the game?
I was also thinking about this. Already in TW1 he was taken back to life, while in the books he was dead. So I guess they can bring him back / keep him alive as they want.
Posted April 08, 2015
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keeveek: hurr I donąt want more of the game durr

I hope most of realize if it wasn't for those expansions, this content would NEVER made to the main game?

Even if it was cut in some portion from the main game, if they wouldn't want to cash in on it, they would simply leave it cut.

Those ideologicl wars and stupidity is all GOG's fault, though. If they weren't pretending "we are so much different than industry standard", there wouldn't be so much whining.

They'd be better off focusing on making good games instead of making one PR stunt after another.
Long time no see keeveek.

And personally I don't give a shit about this Season Pass from GOG, let them do it. The day GOG offers DRM in their games is the day I rage.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Elmofongo
Posted April 08, 2015
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Aceso: you're right.
but now that i now, they put on a dlc season pass to buy, maybe i am going to chancel my pre-order and wait for a GOTY.
In another circumstance I'd probably do the same. But since they bundled so much stuff with the pre-order in this case, I figure I may as well just hold onto it. That's pretty much the only deciding factor for me, though.
Posted April 08, 2015
I was intending to buy W3 on release; my PC will actually be able to run it now. The only issue would have been justifying spending so much money on a single computer game. Like most of us here, I suspect, I own a huge number of games I haven't played through properly yet, and a number more I'd replay if I could find the time. So I've learnt to be patient and await the sales for titles I want. W3 was going to be an exception, since just a month or so back I played W2 for the first time and really enjoyed it.

But this? An expansion pack that they've clearly already starting work on before the main game is even polished and released? DLC by another name? The feeling that I wouldn't be buying a full game, but maybe 75% of one? Thanks, CDPR, you've helped me make my decision. I'll wait for the deluxe version next year or the year after, on sale. Ta. :-/
Posted April 08, 2015
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d2t: ... "However, if we do a big adventure—say, 15 or 20 hours long, a very high production value story extension to the game—then we will probably charge for that."
So people who feel cheated now do not really have much to feel cheated about. Pre-ordering is always kind of a risky business. You don't know what you get and how much you get. You probably pay too much anyway. So why being too strict? Surely some/most of this extra content would never be made if nobody would pay for the expansions. It's really difficult to present a watertight proof of cheating.

I agree though that if maybe CDPR would have underlined the possibility of paid expansions more in the past they would have a much better stance now.
Posted April 08, 2015
Well GoG is unable to keep itself from doing something stupid now and then.

I wonder who is this Chamb person that edit this announcement. He must be under a lot of pressure now.
Posted April 08, 2015
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PhilipG: ...But this? An expansion pack that they've clearly already starting work on before the main game is even polished and released? DLC by another name? The feeling that I wouldn't be buying a full game, but maybe 75% of one?...
One could say that even a 75% game is still quite a lot of a game, if only the game itself is big enough to start with. Depending how much the stories of the main part and the expansions are connected, the main part could be seen as full game on its own.

Also I agree that they probably already started on the expansions but most of the expansions will probably be done after release in the coming months. And with nobody paying for it, it would probably not be able to be done at all.

The amount of the "full game" that is not released now (the expansions so far) is probably much less than 25%, maybe 5-10% which should not make a big difference. Also the exact time point when they start working on the expansions should not make a big difference unless it is literally years before release. If so they should communicate it much more clearly and announce the expansions also much earlier.

However as it is everyone uncomfortable with it should not pre-order or cancel the pre-order. Also buying TW3 at release one should only if one is happy with the prospect of expansions. But if so, why not. Nothing really wrong. TW3, even without the expansions, will probably be a nice game with lots of content and value for the price.
Posted April 08, 2015
I have never expected an expansion to be given away for free. But for me, an expansion is something more than a DLC. I expect an expansion to introduce changes to the game mechanics and perhaps graphics, not just add a new story arc. So I don't know what to think about this Expansion Pass, because judging from the description, this seems more like a regular DLC.

Still, I don't feel mislead. From the way CDPR announced the 16 free DLC packs, it seemed quite probable that there would also be some paid DLCs in the future.

Overall, I don't mind the paid expansions, though the pass seems a bit pricey.
Posted April 08, 2015
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d2t: ...
http://tmi.kotaku.com/the-witcher-3-guys-promise-theyll-do-dlc-right-1595359101
...
"However, if we do a big adventure—say, 15 or 20 hours long, a very high production value story extension to the game—then we will probably charge for that."
In the same article they also wrote:

"We won't cut anything out of the game or diminish the value of the game in order to commercially monetize something afterward."

With a bit of bad will one could see the current situation as exactly this, cutting anything out of the game (the current state of development of the expansions) to monetize it afterwards.

The problem is here that they took such a high morale stance that they can only fall.

They are not doing worse things than others, they do them even a tiny bit better, but they promise even more... which leads to disappointment. They must learn to promise a bit less in order to not leave big discrepancies between what they say and what they do, even if they still do good things in general.
Posted April 08, 2015
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PhilipG: ...But this? An expansion pack that they've clearly already starting work on before the main game is even polished and released? DLC by another name? The feeling that I wouldn't be buying a full game, but maybe 75% of one?...
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Trilarion: One could say that even a 75% game is still quite a lot of a game, if only the game itself is big enough to start with. Depending how much the stories of the main part and the expansions are connected, the main part could be seen as full game on its own.
Well, I suppose it's a wait-and-see situation then. Will gamers feel, on completing W3, that a significant chunk is missing somehow - which will then be filled by a future expansion pack? Or, down the line, will gamers who bought the expansion pack say, "Why the heck couldn't they have put xyz feature/plotline into the main game?" I don't know. Like I said, I'm going to wait and see. And, as long as I'm waiting, I'll wait for the big sale of the whole caboodle.

I just don't like these season pass shenanigans. Can't CDPR work on a new game instead? :-/
Posted April 08, 2015
SNAFU
Posted April 08, 2015
Two things....

First:
Assuming the playtimes are correct
10 hours is not an Expansion it's a DLC, 20 hours is well a small expansion.
Let's say both together actually make one expansion.
25€ for one good expansion is acceptable though.

Two:
I'm pretty confident CDPR can pull off awesome stuff DLC/Expansion but
renaming a Season pass Expansion pass doesn't make it any different or better.

And yes yet again I am disappoint, not by the expansions that should be awesome, but by the same shenanigans as everyone else.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Reaper9988
Posted April 08, 2015
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Kerchatin: Got mixed feelings about this...
Not really happy about this, or the PR...

But, aghrrr! I'll probably end up buying this anyway!
I agree with you. :) CD Projekt once said that they wouldn't do that kind of things... but then again it has still a greater coin/time value then a movie. I pay 9 euro for about 2 or 3 hours of entertainment at the cinema....
Posted April 08, 2015
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Trilarion: In the same article they also wrote:

"We won't cut anything out of the game or diminish the value of the game in order to commercially monetize something afterward."

With a bit of bad will one could see the current situation as exactly this, cutting anything out of the game (the current state of development of the expansions) to monetize it afterwards.
And what is your proof they cut anything from game to do expansions? Do you really live under impression that game designers and writers are creating new content for the game until the second it ships? This stuff has to be locked, translated, tested, certified and sent to manufacturing. Likely it already was. Whoever is not working on polishing and fixing bugs can
1. go unemployed
2. work on something new
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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)