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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 07, 2015
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Calib4n: I never post on forums, but I have to respond to this.

2316 days of GOG membership ruined by a single second of looking at the front page.

Well played, well played indeed.
It was ruined for me the day GOG switched to the new look. I still like GOG's product, but I still dislike the new look.
Posted April 07, 2015
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wolfsite: In this case I think people see it as an incomplete game because they are announcing story content before the game is even released, to many people this can look like content is being cut to sell later on. Though in truth we have no idea if this is correct or not, but if this announcement was made about a month after the game was released this type of backlash would probably not happen.
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darkangelz: Ohh it would happen for sure, but for the reason of lying to the costumers, working on expansions in secret before the launch of the main game or something like that.
If there's one thing certain in life is people always find something to complain about, and to confirm that rule, i complain that if i were to purchase the full preorder pack W3+ pass, i´d pay 5+ dolars if i purchased separetly (probably a bug, but still).

I'm still thinking of preordering W3, but the system specs seem abit hefty for my system.
I know, but it does provide for some hilarious entertainment over what people will complain about.
Posted April 07, 2015
Expansions are vastly different then DLCs... it saddens me that kids nowadays don't know what true expansions were like /tears...

An Expansion is a huge piece of content that continues stories and has just one price. A DLC is when they release tons of content that should be all rights be free but charge you for it like skins, weapons, a tiny 30 minute story etc....

DLC=s Content that should be free but we feel like milking you for all that its worth.

Expansion (when done right) =s Content worth paying for at a reasonable price and that no one could reasonably ask to be given for free.

Capish ?!
Posted April 07, 2015
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wolfsite: Well the easiest thing for people to do is wait until W3 is part of an 80% off sale Like the previous games are in currently.
I've considered it. It is an attractive offer. I paid full price for the Witcher 2 though, because I wanted to show support for CDPR.
Posted April 07, 2015
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GOG.com: Two full-blown expansions for the epic RPG.
Can't wait for Witcher 3 and this is interesting, but I have a few questions and comments:

1. If a third (or forth, etc) expansion were to come out, would it still be included in this deal? Expansion Pass makes it sound like it would or is this more of a "Expansion Bundle"?

2. Is there any real benefit to pre-ordering this? (Other than money for CDPR? :) ) (Witcher 3 pre-order we get some extra goodies, but nothing like that is listed for this.)

3. When they are released, will they be available separately at a lower price?
Posted April 07, 2015
high rated
The most valid arguments here are actually about the "rebranding" of the Season Pass to an Expansion Pass.

This brings back the rebranding of "Regional Pricing" to "Fair Pricing" and other such debacles of the past, and the replies to such criticisms ("sense of entitlement" et al.) appears to be exactly the same here.

There's just not enough faith in TW3 to do these types of things right now. Customers have been too badly burnt in the past. Most of the assurances that customers have that this Expansion Pass is worth it seem to be highly subjective.

After all, 20-30 hours of new gameplay is only of value if the gameplay is actually good. Likewise, a new area is only of value if it is actually good.

All of these decisions and reactions may be different once TW3 has been released.

I think that, ultimately, many people will just feel that it is too early to sign on the dotted line for more paid for content. It's a bit like paying for your dessert with your starter in a restaurant - few people object to paying for starter and dessert AFTER a meal, few do so beforehand.

In addition, in most cases, those time where people don't mind buying starter and dessert at the same time, it is largely because the value of the meal is largely irrelevant in the decision making process. For example, if the meal is part of a social event.

Likewise, the people most likely to buy both TW3 and the EP are those who are already "fanboys" and thus are supporting CDPR, regardless of whether TW3 is any good...
Posted April 07, 2015
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altshift_kill: An Expansion is a huge piece of content that continues stories and has just one price. A DLC is when they release tons of content that should be all rights be free but charge you for it like skins, weapons, a tiny 30 minute story etc....
Didn't I already post about map packs and speech packs? Not to mention selling content that was meant to be free?
Posted April 07, 2015
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altshift_kill: Expansions are vastly different then DLCs... it saddens me that kids nowadays don't know what true expansions were like /tears...
I also think that many don't understand the game making process. I'm not claiming to be an expert on the subject, but I think I understand it well enough. There are most likely several team members that are done with their part of W3, and have nothing more to do. It makes sense that they start working on the next project. I'm sure CDPR will keep working on bug fixes after release.

I do miss the days of true expansions. I am curious exactly how these two expansions fit into the game though.
Posted April 07, 2015
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TCMU2009: Yes, they said DLCs would be free. But they also said they would charge for a substantial amount of content, 15-20 hours worth. In fact, the way that statement was phrased implies he was talking about these exact expansions. It's almost like they're working people who expect to get paid once in a while.
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mkess: That doesn't change the fact, that they do not get my money any longer for this incomßlete game. ;) So my problem is solved. If more old gamer think like me, they will have a problem.
Actually, no, they won't. Let's face it, we *are* a minority here. A vocal one, yes...but it won't put a dent in the popularity meter on the first page. What they cannot take away is our memories of how GOG started to grow and how the website changed. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. I did make a statement by revoking my pre-order, but I'm afraid that this will eventually fall on deaf ears.I own more than 800 games right now, after the unbundling and I have tried to steer the efforts made by voting and commenting here on the forums.

For me, the major good events were until now (not in chronological order):
1. The advent of Linux support,
2. (strictly personal preferences here of course): The Releases of The Longest Journey, The Sierra Quests, System Shock 2, Wing Commander Privateer and Loom.
3. the first autumn discount rally (oh, yes, good times here on the forum)
4. The competion for a video ad against DRM.
5. These vivid discussions in general. They take up a lot of time, but they let you feel that you are part of a community.

The bad events according to me are:
1. the introduction of Regional pricing,
2. the unbundling (to a certain extent, also has it's merits),
3. the discoloration of the logo (just a minor issue, a pinprick really)
and of course:
4. the infamous downtime that even sparked the idea that GOG might have gone belly-up.
5. The disappearance of download links for games already bought from the store pages, rendering all sorting options in the store useless for private libraries. Seriously GOG, the data is already there, why don't you let us USE it?

All in all more or less balanced, but please keep working on the good events and try to avoid the bad ones, especially when laced with #@! marketing speak. I hate that with a passion. Don't take us for fools GOG, pleeeease....
Post edited April 07, 2015 by jorlin
Posted April 07, 2015
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GOG.com: Two full-blown expansions for the epic RPG.
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Skolia: Can't wait for Witcher 3 and this is interesting, but I have a few questions and comments:

1. If a third (or forth, etc) expansion were to come out, would it still be included in this deal? Expansion Pass makes it sound like it would or is this more of a "Expansion Bundle"?

2. Is there any real benefit to pre-ordering this? (Other than money for CDPR? :) ) (Witcher 3 pre-order we get some extra goodies, but nothing like that is listed for this.)

3. When they are released, will they be available separately at a lower price?
1-No. You get only what you see. Other games teaches this (like Borderlands 2 Season Pass).

2- No, so don't do it. If you like W3, you can buy this the day before first DLC will release. There's no discount or bonus, so waiting at least October to see something about this DLC make sense. And...witcher 3 still need to be released, so wait for that one too, to check if there are bugs or problems.
Posted April 07, 2015
Seeing that the game is already having additional dlc (seasonal/expansion pass is just another name for a dlc bundle) scheduled before release I will wait for the complete edition. It might take a year or two but its better then be spammed by dlc. Eitherway announcing more dlc before release is unwise and gives the feeling to buyers not getting the full game. This is becoming similar to Rome 2 Total War dlc sales. Definitely a cash grab. Disqusting. Another step down on the honesty steps.
Post edited April 08, 2015 by Matruchus
Posted April 07, 2015
It is disheartening to see how quickly some people forget CDP’s track record (providing a huge update to The Witcher 2 at no cost) and latch onto the variation of the word season pass which carries negative connotations thanks to unscrupulous publishers. CDP obviously think so, which is why they tried to use the term ‘expansion pass’ (not realizing that publishers have also polluted that notion by constantly renaming their crap). These are proper expansion packs at roughly 30 hours of content. Look at the content on offer, rather than whatever name a company chooses to call the package, and then decide if it’s worth your money on a case by case basis. Do not automatically assume everything called a season pass/dlc/map pack is out to screw you.

Personally, I'm going to wait to see if The Witcher 3 is actually a good game first, no point in doubling down before its even out.
Posted April 07, 2015
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LynetteC: Looks like the UK are even more screwed than Australia with these prices. :-(
*cough*
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in AU: $96.39 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in BR: $59.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in CA: $64.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in CH: $81.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in CZ: $74.29 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in DE: $81.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in GB: $95.79 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in NO: $81.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in PL: $49.19 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in RU: $35.29 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in SE: $81.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in UA: $32.99 instead of $79.99
* Regional price for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The - Game + Expansion Pass in UZ: $35.29 instead of $79.99
Posted April 07, 2015
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darkangelz: If there's one thing certain in life is people always find something to complain about, and to confirm that rule, i complain that if i were to purchase the full preorder pack W3+ pass, i´d pay 5+ dolars if i purchased separetly (probably a bug, but still).
Cos, logic... :p
Posted April 07, 2015
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georgealmighty: Exactly
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yyyeeeaaahhh: Quoting this as it is the last post on the subject when posting : would you prefer Witcher 3 be delayed as far as Q1 2016 to be released full ? It's not "Day 1 DLC" they've announced here, and I consider this NOT DLC at all, but Expansions like it was being done in the "good old days" , this is roughly the same price as Diablo 2 expansion when it was released (and it was announced a while later, but was not really a secret at the time)
We probably have a misunderstanding. I was trying to underscore that there's actually no good way for CDPR to manage this. For some people they will be bad CDPR no matter how they PR DLCs/Expansions/Enhanced ediitions.

I would feel better if they kept the expansions under the hood until they are ready to release them (although there would probably be similar uproar then as now).

This whole thing boils down to promises. Many people felt that CDPR promised them a full game like in the Good Old Days, and probably think they would be happy if CDPR announced the expasions akin to HL: Opposing Force or TR2: the golden mask (I am one of those people)

The problem is, we're not in the Good Old Days anymore. The market has changed, and any addition, no matter when announced or released is considered a money grab. There is no "YAY! more stuff from that awesome game I played and adored!" anymore.

Shitty practices by AAA publishers destroyed both the (good IMO if implemented right) ideas of oxpansions and DLC. This thread is just CDPR getting hit by collateral damage.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)