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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
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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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darthspudius: Not quite, isn't Game of The Year editions a XBOX thing?
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P1na: Does the actual name mean that much to you? I think the meaning of the package is what this is about.
Well yeah, it's a different thing isn't it. A different brand, one you guys wouldn't want to be involved with... right?

I mean we can't go about calling every game here Games For Windows, despite the fact it is true, it is a brand thing.
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darthspudius: Not quite, isn't Game of The Year editions a XBOX thing?
When people say GOTY they are usually referring to a complete edition of the game. The term is popular because that is how most complete editions are marketed as a new release.
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InkPanther: Wasn't the pass cheaper a couple of hours ago? O.o
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georgealmighty: I also think it was cheaper.
What prices are you seeing? For me it would be $ 25 (after I substract the regional price stuff).
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darthspudius: Not quite, isn't Game of The Year editions a XBOX thing?
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stg83: When people say GOTY they are usually referring to a complete edition of the game. The term is popular because that is how most complete editions are marketed as a new release.
Well I gathered that... I'm not THAT thick... I think! >_<
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darthspudius: Well yeah, it's a different thing isn't it. A different brand, one you guys wouldn't want to be involved with... right?

I mean we can't go about calling every game here Games For Windows, despite the fact it is true, it is a brand thing.
Whatever. Call it "enhanced complete full game + extra additional superespecial exclusive content" version if it makes you happier.
And I was hoping they won't go down this route... Oh well...
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blotunga: I kind of regret buying this game now. If the expansions have to be played during the main parts then I won't restart the game for a couple of sidequests and if they are separate, i usually ignore those kind of expansions...
I know what you mean and don't worry about it.
It will be like the old Elder Scrolls games You can do your main quest and so on. This is separate content with its own story-line and so on.
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darthspudius: Well yeah, it's a different thing isn't it. A different brand, one you guys wouldn't want to be involved with... right?

I mean we can't go about calling every game here Games For Windows, despite the fact it is true, it is a brand thing.
Game of the Year isn't an XBOX thing, though. Unreal Tournament '99 had a GOTY version, before the 1st XBOX was even released.
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BKGaming: They seem to want to go more of the Skyrim road with Witcher 3]
Skyrim comparison is spot on. There are only two differences/problems. Bethesda didn't announce any expansions before release. On the other hand, they (Bethesda) didn't have to. Everyone knows tha TES games will get expansions, and will get GOTY edition (even if its called Legendary for some reason). Same thing applies to modern Fallouts.

The problem is, Witcher doesn't have such history. Enhanced editions of both W1 and W2 had only minor additions (with all due respect todevs and writers) so CDPR can't ride on the customers familliarity.

Hence the announcement "WE ARE MAKING EXPANIONS, they will be good, we promise, oh and look, we are still giving you extra content for free <cough> horse armor <cough>. Sooo... maybe you'll support us and pay all this stuff in advance? You know us, we deliver!"

I understand the whole process, the development, the marketing, catching the (late) hypetrain, but still, it feels so similar to what other publishers are doing, that it's a bit sad. They will make money on this though. And come on, more money for CDPR = more games from CDPR :)
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yyahoo: Well, if nothing else is released beyond those two expansions, there already is a "GOTY edition", if all that's meant by that title is all content sold in one package.

http://www.gog.com/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_game_expansion_pass

It's the game and the expansion sold together...
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darthspudius: Not quite, isn't Game of The Year editions a XBOX thing?
I see the GOTY terminology on all platforms. After the life cycle of a game is up, the publisher gathers all of the content for the title together into one package and calls it a "Game of the Year" edition, or something similar.

Some examples from Steam:

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War/
Fallout 3
Batman: Arkham City
Borderlands
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

On GOG we have:

King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Unreal Tournament
Deus Ex
Post edited April 07, 2015 by yyahoo
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darthspudius: Not quite, isn't Game of The Year editions a XBOX thing?
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yyahoo: I see the GOTY terminology on all platforms. After the life cycle of a game is up, the publisher gathers all of the content for the title together into one package and calls it a "Game of the Year" edition, or something similar.

Some examples from Steam:

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War/
Fallout 3
Batman: Arkham City
Borderlands
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

On GOG we have:

King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Unreal Tournament
http://www.gog.com/game/deus_ex]Deus Ex/url]
Weren't those games GFWL games though?
high rated
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mkess: And guess what? I buy these games never ever at realease, I wait until the GotY edition is on sale for 5 bucks.

I will do the same now with The Witcher 3. Good by preorder money for CD-Project.
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BKGaming: Which isn't a bad idea really. I sometimes do the same depending if it's a game I'm fine with waiting for.

I'm just saying this isn't some shitty plan that makes CDPR horrible. There is content that should be free and there is content that should be paid for, I don't expect anyone to spend months working on large significant content for free. I expect all those people in here complaining wouldn't want to work without compensation either.
I canceled my preorder for the Witcher 3: The Wild hunt 10 minutes ago. My problem is solved now.

But now I will treat CD project like ALL other game developers. And I have over 500 other games to play in the meantime ... waiting for the GotY edition for 5$. And I will do the same now with their "Cyberpunk 2079" game ...
Post edited April 07, 2015 by mkess
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darthspudius: Well I gathered that... I'm not THAT thick... I think! >_<
Well, to answer your original question then about it being a XBOX thing then NO, its not just and XBOX thing as many games on PC also have GOTY editions similar to their console counterparts. :)

EDIT: Typically ninja'd by Grargar, I see.
Post edited April 07, 2015 by stg83
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blotunga: I kind of regret buying this game now.
It's not like you can't cancel the preorder ...
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darthspudius: Well I gathered that... I'm not THAT thick... I think! >_<
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stg83: Well, to answer your original question then about it being a XBOX thing then NO, its not just and XBOX thing as many games on PC also have GOTY editions similar to their console counterparts. :)
Those were the ones with GFWL though, originally.