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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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jerff: People saying that it's bad timing to announce it now, do you really think that keeping your customers in the dark is better than being transparent? They were going to release these expansions anyway, why make a secret out of it? Knowing this helps you make an informed decision.
I suppose most people just love being lied to.

CDPR and/or GOG could've handled this better, it's true. Like someone suggested, they could've announced they were working on expansions before taking pre-orders for them.

But then again, the customers could've also handled this better. I would thank GOG for letting me know there are expansions, but I'm not interested in buying them, at least not now.

NOT releasing stuff/lobbying to have stuff cancelled and/or not released is NOT acceptable. In any way.

I for one, am very, very thankful that GOG announced these early, even if they messed up doing it.

Like you say, knowing this helps me make an informed decision. I have no idea how or why this is a bad thing.

I suppose most people just love being lied to.

I am so very tempted to copy/paste the rest of my reply at this point, it would perfectly illustrate the circular nature of these discussions so well...
Posted April 08, 2015
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Dawnreader: My post was not specifically addressable him, but in general for those who are whining and yelling so hard like the government issued a law that all of them will be slaves tomorrow
Sure getting super whiny about it is annoying to everybody, but there's also people acting like anyone who doesn't like this move is an idiot. Which is starting to annoy me just as much.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Reaper9988: No one forces you to buy EA or UBI Season passes either.
You might understand though that alot of people hold CDPR in somewhat high esteem.
If they do the same crap the other publisher do, while actually saying that's what they won't do, then it's quite a bit of a disappointment.

For me it's also compounded by alot of other disappointments on this site lately.
And what they exactly did ? Make a horde of day 1 dlcs ? released bugged game ? And don't go for this bullshit please that they must polish game instead ExPacks. This is game development cycle And as you see a lot of folks are already free at this moment. And what they have to do in your opinion?
Posted April 08, 2015
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Reaper9988: There was a comic in there too which I ended up having to use "different" means to actually get because Dark horse wanted me to use their shitty web drm viewer to redeem the code.
Thanks for mentioning this. I wasn't aware some of the extra content had DRM. That basically means that it isn't even part of the pre-order bonuses. It's a shame that Dark Horse uses DRM when Dynamite has been releasing a lot of comics DRM free lately.

Is the art book good?


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IAmSinistar: One other pre-order bonus I neglected to mention, as it's not available until the game is - High quality digital artbook.
Thanks, that answered my question.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by jalister
Posted April 08, 2015
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Dawnreader: And what they exactly did ? Make a horde of day 1 dlcs ? released bugged game ? And don't go for this bullshit please that they must polish game instead ExPacks. This is game development cycle And as you see a lot of folks are already free at this moment. And what they have to do in your opinion?
lol, that's one screwed up and outdated development cycle. Everyone remotely familiar with videogames knows that nowadays "sales/marketing" comes in pre-production, probably even before concept development.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Dawnreader: And what they exactly did ? Make a horde of day 1 dlcs ? released bugged game ? And don't go for this bullshit please that they must polish game instead ExPacks. This is game development cycle And as you see a lot of folks are already free at this moment. And what they have to do in your opinion?
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P1na: lol, that's one screwed up and outdated development cycle. Everyone remotely familiar with videogames knows that nowadays "sales/marketing" comes in pre-production, probably even before concept development.
Yep, agreed. Extreme example of that definitely is Rome 2 Total War that was being marketed even before anything was made. A couple of nice high end videos of "real, unbelivable" ingame content that did not exist after 1.5 years after release. And still doesn't in promised quality or playability.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Matruchus
Posted April 08, 2015
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P1na: Sure getting super whiny about it is annoying to everybody, but there's also people acting like anyone who doesn't like this move is an idiot. Which is starting to annoy me just as much.
I don't name anyone 'an idiot'.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Reaper9988: No one forces you to buy EA or UBI Season passes either.
You might understand though that alot of people hold CDPR in somewhat high esteem.
If they do the same crap the other publisher do, while actually saying that's what they won't do, then it's quite a bit of a disappointment.

For me it's also compounded by alot of other disappointments on this site lately.
avatar
Dawnreader: And what they exactly did ? Make a horde of day 1 dlcs ? released bugged game ? And don't go for this bullshit please that they must polish game instead ExPacks. This is game development cycle And as you see a lot of folks are already free at this moment. And what they have to do in your opinion?
Huh ? What CDPR does with their Manpower is not my problem.
It's the simple fact they are offering a Season pass for DLC before the actual game is released.
Same stuff EA does, that's the point, Expansion/DLC,Season pass/Expansion pass is all semantics, there's been 10 hour DLC's before.
At least they have a very small sketch out what to expect, that's more than the usual Season pass.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Reaper9988
Posted April 08, 2015
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lunah: ...I never buy blind and I make deliberate and rational purchasing decisions...
...as oppose to the majority of customers who are buying irrationally and based on emotions/impulse only ... and being the majority they set the market, they create a huge demand for this and thus the offer appears.
Unfortunately.

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fronzelneekburm: no way in hell am I going to believe that list is accurate as far as CDPR games are concerned! TW3 has been almost continuously in the Top 3, which strikes me as VERY odd.
yea, I was thinking the same for a long time and still believe they manipulate statistics when they want and it benefits them, like they artificially recently gave 5*stars to Witcher3 just because it helps them get more sales:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_what_did_just_update_thread/post6993

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gamesfreak64: ...playing around with the numbers doesnt get them more buys...
Unfortunately it does because people like to act in herd, they see huge interest for a title then they think all those people are not stupid and they buy it also. Sales tactics 101.

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altshift_kill: ...We will support games like The Order (60eur for 4h gameplay + 2h cutscenes)...
I will definitely not.

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keeveek: Those ideological 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.
Well, they were building the customer base exactly on those values, being different that the bad industry standards and practices. So no surprise for this backlash.

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MrAlphaNumeric: Does anyone know what was edited in the announcement by Chamb?
I'm interested in that too ;)
Posted April 08, 2015
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P1na: lol, that's one screwed up and outdated development cycle. Everyone remotely familiar with videogames knows that nowadays "sales/marketing" comes in pre-production, probably even before concept development.
Oh, such a "smart" move! Change a theme of a polemic and you win. Are we speaking about marketing guys now ? The point is that everyone else except testers and few programmers can work on another project at this stage of development.
Posted April 08, 2015
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twistedpony: I don't have a problem with the expansions as such. The last true expansion I remember playing was NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer and it was really, really good. A new area, new story line and basically the same gameplay (except for the spirit hunger) but at a much higher class level. ...
Last expansions I had were for Civilization V (Gods and Kings, Brave New World) and as far as I can judge they filled gaps in the main game that were left out from day one. It's the typical example of intentionally left out content. So I feel like something is left out and I feel like the price for the expansions is too high. By cutting the game in parts and sellling it is parts I feel like they took the fun out of it partly.

Still I do not feel overly unfairly treated. That's the business model of 2K and Firaxis. The only thing I regret is that the expansions are so expensive for what they offer and go less often on sale.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Dawnreader: I don't name anyone 'an idiot'.
My post was not specifically addressing you, but in general for those who are whining and yelling so hard like disagreeing with a CDPR move is offending their god.
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.
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IAmSinistar: 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.
i know what you mean.
At first i thought exactly the same, but like i said after i saw this announcement, i changed really quick my mind, and the extra stuff doesn't change anything abou it, but thats just my opinion.
if you satisfied with your decision you will enjoy the game, i for my part couldn't enjoy the game because of this it may sounds stupid for some people but ,to each his own.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Dawnreader: Oh, such a "smart" move! Change a theme of a polemic and you win. Are we speaking about marketing guys now ? The point is that everyone else except testers and few programmers can work on another project at this stage of development.
Oh come on, it was just a joke. You left yourself way open to it posting that image on a thread about buying a not-yet-developed expansion for a not-yet-released* game. No need to be "smart" for it, it was a pretty easy one.

Then again, if I must respond to your previous point to make you happy... what did the team do after finishing the witcher? What did the team do after finishing the witcher 2? Would it have been such a bad idea to start designing/writing their new cyberpunk game now that the design team had nothing better to do?

*edit: fixed term there
Post edited April 08, 2015 by P1na
Posted April 08, 2015
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P1na: My post was not specifically addressing you, but in general for those who are whining and yelling so hard like disagreeing with a CDPR move is offending their god.
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;)
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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)