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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
high rated
This is such bad PR. What were they thinking? I personally dislike this a lot. I purchased the past Witcher games with confidence knowing I was getting a full game from day one. That made me a huge supporter. I had the same expectation going into Witcher 3.

Announcing this now makes it seem like content was withheld to sell separately later. If they just waited, sold a full expansion sometime next year, and offered a 'loyalty' discount, I think this would have gone over much better with the public. As it stands, this can only hurt their reputation because there are many customers like myself thinking this is really shady.
Posted April 08, 2015
I have no issue with paid expansion packs as long as the original content is substantial and robust enough to warrant it.

I'm sure these are worth the price in terms of content and quality, but I'd like to actually play the game first.
I think it's too soon so I'll pass on the expansion pass for now.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Mr.Caine: Only on GOG.If you check any gaming site that reported this news you won't see people screaming for bloody murder.
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Matruchus: Nope, Steam page of Witcher 3 is full of similar threads and preorder cancelations.
I honestly thought in this particular case the Steam forums would go over better on this issue since over there theyre generally less tuned to the ideological stances of GOG/CDPR, but phew, it's worse there than here.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Mr.Caine: Only on GOG.If you check any gaming site that reported this news you won't see people screaming for bloody murder.
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Matruchus: Nope, Steam page of Witcher 3 is full of similar threads and preorder cancelations.
Steam is another storefront famous for overreacting forums,not a gaming news site.
Posted April 08, 2015


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Pheace:
What is inhernetly wrong about this "Season Pass" format?
Posted April 08, 2015
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Matruchus: Nope, Steam page of Witcher 3 is full of similar threads and preorder cancelations.
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Pheace: I honestly thought in this particular case the Steam forums would go over better on this issue since over there theyre generally less tuned to the ideological stances of GOG/CDPR, but phew, it's worse there than here.
Yep, the backlash there is definitely bigger then anticipated.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Pheace: I honestly thought in this particular case the Steam forums would go over better on this issue since over there theyre generally less tuned to the ideological stances of GOG/CDPR, but phew, it's worse there than here.
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Matruchus: Yep, the backlash there is definitely bigger then anticipated.
I knew a shitstorm was gonna happen the moment I saw it on the homepage.
Posted April 08, 2015
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bigsilverhotdog: ...The problem is, I expected the complete candy from the start, as was promised, and as I paid for, on time, and delivered in the same fucking manner that you delivered the previous two shipments of candy."

Trust folks, and GOG and CDP just lost a lot of it. I've got no problem paying 100 dollars for a complete Witcher 3, but I cannot fucking stand being lied to and misled in the pursuit of profit. It's happened far too many times in the past 10 years and I simply won't fucking take it anymore, from anyone.

NEVER, EVER AGAIN.
It's just my personal impression, but I think you overreact. The complete candy is difficult to define and there is no generally valid concept of where a game ends and what must be contained.

Being lied to is a big too much probably. Did they really imply anywhere there would never be any paid expansions? I don't recall so. Basically it was a topic that was never clarified really.

Also if you got no problem to pay $100 why don't you pre-order the expansions, pay the $100 and get the full candy.

If however you don't like Witcher 3 at all now (which I could not really understand) why not canceling the pre-order?

CDPR is not the greedy company you might be used to. Maybe they don't tell you everything but who is doing that nowadays still, but they only want your money if you really want the game in return. So a cancellation might be the obvious way out.

I never pre-ordered, but I rarely do and I will for sure buy TW3 and it's expansions at some point (because the games will surely be nice).
Posted April 08, 2015
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Trilarion: Being lied to is a big too much probably. Did they really imply anywhere there would never be any paid expansions? I don't recall so. Basically it was a topic that was never clarified really.
They have been mentioning paid DLC since 2011, there was a link earlier in this thread. Tell me if you want me to dig it up.
Posted April 08, 2015
Well I preordered the game a few months ago and am completely content with just getting my hands on the game. If I love it and spend 100+ hours on it buying these expansions will be a no brainer.

That said, in the past if you bought the original games you got the 'Enhanced Edition' upgrade for free. I'm guessing that there will be an enhanced edition for W3 but will you need the add-ons?

Also does this mean Geralt doesn't die at the end of the game?
Posted April 08, 2015
For years I have been thinking that wouldn't it be groovy to have proper EXPANSIONS to games I love. Not DLC which give me clothing etc. Seems like my wish is coming true.:-)

Can't believe the negative comments here.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Aningan: Too many posts to find anything :)

But just so it's clear, I'm only talking about the time of the announcement since I did see some complaints about it. Everything else regarding this announcement, I'm not a fan of.
But... I linked straight to the relevant post :)
Posted April 08, 2015
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Trilarion: Being lied to is a big too much probably. Did they really imply anywhere there would never be any paid expansions? I don't recall so. Basically it was a topic that was never clarified really.
Quite the opposite, they hinted that big expansions are possibility and if they do them, they will be paid products.

http://tmi.kotaku.com/the-witcher-3-guys-promise-theyll-do-dlc-right-1595359101

"First and foremost, I think the word 'DLC' has been extremely devalued," he opined. "Any additional content is called DLC, whether it's one sword or some costume options or a full expansion pack. I really look at it differently. For me DLC is the smaller bits and pieces, and we will never charge for those things."

"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."
Posted April 08, 2015
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Scorpionscythe: This is such bad PR. What were they thinking? I personally dislike this a lot. I purchased the past Witcher games with confidence knowing I was getting a full game from day one. That made me a huge supporter. I had the same expectation going into Witcher 3.

Announcing this now makes it seem like content was withheld to sell separately later. If they just waited, sold a full expansion sometime next year, and offered a 'loyalty' discount, I think this would have gone over much better with the public. As it stands, this can only hurt their reputation because there are many customers like myself thinking this is really shady.
To be a bit sympathizing with them I do not recall that they excluded any paid expansions later on. Also the definition of full game is kind of tricky. Whatever content was withheld I'm sure the remaining part is still a good game and worth to be played.

Maybe I'm coming from the old times where (real) expansions were happening more often and so I do not object against them. Also announcing them before the release is nothing really that affects me because I do not pre-order anyway - I stopped doing that many years ago.

Whatever they do, I do not interpret what a full game is or what withhold content is too narrowly. I give them some benefit of doubt. But I feel encouraged that pre-ordering in general is an unwise thing and one is better off waiting and buying later. That way one gets optimal value from every company for every game. For the waiting thing it's actually better if they announce expansions earlier.
Posted April 08, 2015
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Matruchus: Yep, the backlash there is definitely bigger then anticipated.
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Elmofongo: I knew a shitstorm was gonna happen the moment I saw it on the homepage.
Definitely. If a company sells itself as a champion of always free dlc and then announces payable dlc before even the base game is released then you get a shitstorm. I definitely think they are trying to use the negative publicity to get more people informed about the game and consequently buy it. Similar like its for that Hatred game.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)