That's actually a fair point that hadn't occurred to me before. The way they have done it _does_ provide maximum transparency. Not only do we know the expansions are coming but we know the price to. It does provide maximum decision making ability. Emotionally, selling them before the base game is out still feels a bit iffy but I have somewhat come around to the view that I kinda like the fact that it takes the mickey out of the Season Passes of other publishers, as per one of my earlier posts. No one is forcing us to buy them now. We can still get the base game first, try it and then buy the expansion or wait for the whole lot to be released.

Marcin,

Some of the reactions have little to do with how you guys handled this.
It just shows how defensive gamers have become due to how poorly other companies have treated them.

I've been your client for years and because I have been well treated, I now treat CD Projekt RED differently.

I never pre order games. Specially after the poor AC Unity release.
I have no issues pre ordering CD Projekt Red games because I trust this company.
I usually don't buy DLC. But I used to buy expansions back in the day. i have bought your expansions even though I may not get to play them when they are released as I may have moved on to more recent titles. I would not buy it if it was another company. I bought it just to support you.

I rarely buy collectors editions of games. I will buy your collectors edition.

My hope is that your way of handling clients ends up showing that if you are fair with your clients they will spend more money on your products then they would anywhere else just because they want your company to continue on that path.
It is similar in many ways with how people support certain crowdfunding projects or are loyal to a certain brand.

I mention all this because we have a lot of newcomers that only heard of your fair policies from word of mouth or good press. But they never experienced it.

I know CD Projekt Red is already a big company but seriously you are going to grow a lot more because all the newcomers are about to become long time consumers that will waste money on your products without even blinking because they trust you.

Few companies can say the same.

The skepticism of some of the fans will dissipate once they see your trustworthy.
The same happened to me back in the day. And here I am praising your efforts and trowing my money to the screen :P

You mean along with other companies which do expansions properly, like Bethesda, Obsidian or Irrational games? Expansions didn't go anywhere, they were just rebranded.

While I am not against meaningful DLC, I have some reservations about this "expansion pass".

1) It's a DLC. You don't get to re-define DLC as a "small content". It's paid post release content defined by the form of distribution. Downloadable, i.e. digital. Size doesn't matter, it all qualifies as such. Be it SPECACT Kit Upgrade for Bad Company 2 or Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep for Borderlands 2. Distancing yourself from paid DLC by misinterpreting what DLC actually stands for and then announcing what by definition is one, but trying to push it as "expansion", seems like a cheap PR spin.

2) Is selling DLC whole 6 months in advance, and even before the game it self launches, really putting the gamers first? Doesn't seem very consumer friendly to me.

3) As a collectors Collector's Edition buyer I am already spending $200 on the bloody thing. Honestly, I can't help it but feel this cheapens that a bit.

This is a complete disappointment for me. Not because CDPRJ aren't allowed to charge for their expansions (especially if they are fully fledged hour-long expansions), no my grief is about the fact that they are actually announcing a pre-order expansion for a pre-order game which hasn't even been released yet.
I have already regretted pre-ordering The Witcher 3, when nothing happened for months and the same pre-order "sale" was going on everywhere and non-stop. But now I really think I should ask for a refund and wait for one or two years until the GOTY-Version is on sale.
This in addition to the fact that prices on GOG have almost doubled recently have made me loose faith in this place. :(

I think Bethesda have found the right balance of what DLC should be, and I found all their expansions for Skyrim well worth paying for (and I bought several copies as well). What I really liked was that they didn't only provide a new area - every release lifted the whole game with content. Compared to other games it would have been cheap at thrice the price.

As for CDPR, I have no problems with the concept - in fact I welcome it. If this is an easy money grab (think every Dragon Age DLC, with the exception of Awakening) or something that brings the game a few steps closer to greatness remains to be seen.

First, I see no disrespect. You said you didn't understand something, I pointed you to somewhere that would help you with that. Would leaving you ignorant have been more polite?

The comparison with cars and tanks is something I came up with to represent how I think these expansions actually add to this product, after all they are supposed to be huge and whatnot. Those "few more extras" would be cosmetic, unimportant DLC to me. Then again, I don't like cars to begin with, so as long as they have 4 wheels and move they're cars and nothing else. Basically, I'm saying they have a working product and offer an upgrade to a different, better product; not try to sell you an incomplete one (i.e., a car without wheels) and then charge extra for the very important wheels. There's also a big difference in that (to me) games are a hobby while cars are mereley a utility to get from point A to B, but I know this is not a majority view so I thought my point would get accross.

No, it does not mean I would end up spending more money. I can get the old car now for 20€, and the tank in 3 years for another 20€, while getting the new car now is 40+€. Even without considering that money spent years later is cheaper than money spent now, how exactly do I spend more?

When have I ever asked for free stuff? Seriously, it's precisely these kind of blanket assertions that annoy me so much.

My whole point is precisely that while I knew the car I was buying, I did not know there was a tank available; and once I knew about the tank my interest on the car disappeared. I'm not saying I should be gifted the tank, I'm not saying that I was promised the tank, I'm not saying the tank is not worth its asking price. I'm just saying the tank is something I want but I can't afford, therefore I won't buy.

What's the point there? Someone bought an upgrade? Yeah, great. How does that prove me wrong, in any way? Or, is your argument the same one as JMich's, which I already answered

If you want to consider this extremism, go right ahead. I call it time management. I have way too many games I want to play, so I'd rather not waste my time playing something twice (unless I actually want to). You do whatever you want, of course. I would appreciate you getting to the point where, while not necesarily agreeing with me or sharing my viewpoint, you'd understand there is indeed a reason for someone to cancel a preorder.

I wonder if someone made a movie about the whole car/tank thing how people would react to the main character's actions.

So would it be more consumer friendly to purposely hide the fact that they are working on the paid expansion until some time after release? You would have the same complains about "expecting goty version" mixed with whining how they "knew there will be expansion but wanted to cash in on people who thought they buy a full game". The only difference is that after release nobody could ask for refund of the game they were playing for months. Now they can.

And announcing expansions but not allowing people to buy it? Because what? Are people too stupid to be trusted with their wallets? Look at GOG main page... plenty of people buying the exp it seems, it is the top seller since announcement. Who are you to forbid them from buying it if they want?

Seriously let's not play the "I know what is better for everyone else" card. People should have choices... and then it's up to their own brain what to do with them.

I feel rather dubious about the whole thing myself. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with Witcher 1 and 2 and have gotten great support from CDPR / GOG, that I was confident of pre-ordering Witcher 3. But the game is not even out yet and won't be for another month or so.

If I don't know how good/bad the game itself is, I cannot justify to myself buying and expansion pass (I find the whole concept of pre-buying DLC rather offensive, but that's my personal bias). CDPR is the only studio I even bother with pre-orders to start with.

I will pass on the pass (yes yes I know) ;) . I've seen other studios selling pass's and then deliver the equivalent of horse armor.

Note that this opinion is personal, others are free to do as they wish.

DLC can mean a wide range of things, so they deemed it necessary to specify what exactly they intend to offer here, as well as distance themselves from what the term DLC usually refers to. Sure, it is technically "downloadable content", but then, so is the main game if you're buying the digital version. If we forget about the digital delivery method of these add-ons for a second, then everything else about them is going to be more like classic game expansions.


You have a point there. Really not sure why they didn't at least wait until shortly after the release of the core game. Of course, in the end the choice is up to each individual gamer. And as far as I can tell they aren't trying to "bribe" their customers into purchasing the expansions before they've tried the main game, since there's no pre-order bonus or even any discount.

Personally, I probably will pre-order the expansions, but only after I've tried out the main game.


That's true as well -- you'd think they should just provide buyers of the CE with free codes for the expansions. Then again, those who buy the Collector's Editions are probably the biggest fans of the series, and quite willing to support CDPR and GOG, as long as the game turns out to be good. ( Which seems likely enough. )

To be honest I think his only mistake was the title which surely was dead wrong and was worth 1000 angry replies alone. However he was not responsible for the introduction of regional pricing. This is the responsibility of the bosses of GOG and CDP, the monks if you remember them. He only conveyed the message and who would damn the messenger for the content of the message?

Later they partly went back on the regional pricing (introducing kind of partly fair price a bit package) and by promising their great negotiation skills to keep flat pricing (didn't turn out to be so great). So I think it was more a strategic error than a PR error.

Or would you say that anyone could have announced pure regional pricing in such a way that there would have been no outcry? I don't think anyone could have done it.

I have a question about the expansions. Why is the complete edition $7 more than buying the game and expansions seperately?

Unless I want physical gods that may run out I don't tend to preorder anything.
But for CDPR I will do it to show my support and trust as they have yet to let me down.

Hope it will all sell well and give us all a bright future filled with new exciting adventures.

I thought that like previous games, all expansions would be free? I feel like I shouldn't have pre ordered the game and wait for the final game with all DLC and bonuses at a cheap price... Like I did for TES games...