It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)
Pages:
1
10
20
30
40
50
57
58
59
60
61
70
74
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 09, 2015
avatar
Gnostic: Does Lord of Destruction have pre-order when Diablo 2 itself is not yet released?

While I understand there is nothing wrong making a huge expension, it is a stupid PR move to invoke good memories of expension of old like LoD, but asking for money for Pre-order NOW when none of the games of old does pre-order like this.

The word "Pre-order" has an inherent negative preception like Early Access as a lot of people got burned by it. Pre-order of a Pre-order that take 1.5 years to realize, maybe more given CD Red history of delaying Witcher 3 just invoke very negative preception from a lot of people.

If they just announce they are doing expension after Witcher 3, or even Witcher 4. And do not ask money NOW, not until after witcher 3 is released. I suspect things will go more smoothly, when a lot of good will is generated by how great is Witcher 3.

Unless of course Witcher 3 fails to live up to its hype.
avatar
Wishbone: How is any of that even remotely relevant to the discussion you replied to? We were talking about whether or not expansion packs can change game mechanics in the base game. I get that you're angry about the pre-order thing, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the discussion you decided to jump into.
Sorry then, I have reading comprehension problem at the moment.

And nope, I am angry that GoG blew its chance at represending pro customer movement.
Now when I want to promote GoG / CD Red people will point at this
Post edited April 09, 2015 by Gnostic
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
Wishbone: I bought the latest Humble Indie Bundle for $6. That netted me 9 games altogether. Let's look at just one of them, Torchlight 2. Now, some of the games I got I already had, and some of the others I have no interest in. I'll probably only play 3 of them, Torchlight 2 among them (I'm already playing it). So let's say I paid $2 for Torchlight 2. According to www.gamelengths.com, Torchlight 2 has an average play time of just over 40 hours. That comes to $0.05 per hour.

Following your logic, the fact that The Witcher 3 costs 500% more than that ($0.25 per hour), The Witcher 3 is hideously overpriced!
That was the reason I already said in my previous post that you can't compare other games: the only objective price wise comparison you can make its only between the base game and the expansion. Because W3 "expansion pass" is the expansion (or dlc or whatever) to the W3 Wild Hunt, not for Torchlight or other game. And thats 25cents versus 83cents. Imo math can't and doesn't lie.

avatar
Wishbone: it makes the base game ridiculously cheap
cdpr and gog, the fools ... they should have priced it at a higher level, dunno lets say 80?100? Because atm it's too cheap! ;)

I'm sorry, but given the official data all the facts point to the expansion being overpriced in comparison with the base game. And you really can't say that the base game is cheap at 50bucks...
Post edited April 09, 2015 by mobutu
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: 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
Thanks for taking the time to clarify some issues.
Posted April 09, 2015
i would now cancel my preorder of witcher the wild hunt 3 because i found it not okay to say
from the developers in the past that the will never take money for updates or dlc and now the
game is not at the market and the bring a pre order pack for dlc to pay for thats not okay form the developers
i will now cancel all and wait for the future if there came out a goty edition sorry cd project iam disapointed
from you
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: 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.
I still find it strange to already sell it, but perhaps that is just a sign of me getting old, since expensions always were boxes I bought way after I played the original game :D

Thanks for taking time to respond to this thread :-)
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: 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
"we are a business" you should be ashamed. We want no good business practices here :) Please have the expansions split into tiny DLC which you announce after the pre-order and what you don't make in volume from the marketing you can make in volume of pricey DLC.

Now wait for people to complain that you should have announced this before release and had larger expansions ;P
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: Hello Everyone,
*snip*
Marcin
Could you please clarify if the expansions can be played on their own or if will cut into the base game? I guess that is a very important question for a lot of gamers (who don't want to play the whole game again once the expansions come out).
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
jcm9800: i found it not okay to say from the developers in the past that the will never take money for updates or dlc and now the game is not at the market and the bring a pre order pack for dlc to pay for thats not okay form the developers i will now cancel all and wait for the future if there came out a goty edition sorry cd project iam disapointed from you
They have said from back in 2011 that paid expansions are a possibility. They said they wouldn't charge for small pieces of content, like cosmetic stuff. Tell me if you want me to dig up the quote.
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: Hello Everyone,
*snip*
Marcin
avatar
PaterAlf: Could you please clarify if the expansions can be played on their own or if will cut into the base game? I guess that is a very important question for a lot of gamers (who don't want to play the whole game again once the expansions come out).
Valid question. I'd assume they would be an additional menu option from the base game, but worth asking.
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
jcm9800: i would now cancel my preorder of witcher the wild hunt 3 because i found it not okay to say
from the developers in the past that the will never take money for updates or dlc and now the
game is not at the market and the bring a pre order pack for dlc to pay for thats not okay form the developers
i will now cancel all and wait for the future if there came out a goty edition sorry cd project iam disapointed
from you
OK, now can you point me to where you read this because from what I remember (and it looks like I'm not the only one if you read other posts - even from people not happy with this news), they stated that they'll only charge if they consider that the added value was worth it. 30 hours of gameplay looks like a good added value for me.
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
jcm9800: i would now cancel my preorder of witcher the wild hunt 3 because i found it not okay to say
from the developers in the past that the will never take money for updates or dlc and now the
game is not at the market and the bring a pre order pack for dlc to pay for thats not okay form the developers
i will now cancel all and wait for the future if there came out a goty edition sorry cd project iam disapointed
from you
Here on how to cancel preorder:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/witcher_expansion_0f2a2/post534
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: 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
Thanks for clarifying, your post should be added to the main one if possible because many look at this thread but might miss your comment (unless people will keep quoting ;))
Posted April 09, 2015
avatar
iWi: 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
Thanks for the reply, getting the word out I understand and announcing the expansion now I even would say is a good Idea.(Although I find it debatable if the first 10 hour Addon is an Expansion or a DLC of course I can't tell till it's released :P)
The bad Idea is offering a Season pass and selling them now when nearly nothing is known IMO.
That smells too much like EA and all the rest.
Post edited April 09, 2015 by Reaper9988
Posted April 09, 2015
I wonder if the expansions will be standalone adventures like The Price of Neutrality and Side Effects for the first game, or they will be included to the main storyline. Maybe it is just me, but I did not find any information for that.
Pages:
1
10
20
30
40
50
57
58
59
60
61
70
74
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass(1100 posts)(1100 posts)
(1100 posts)