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Witcher 3 and DLC: Changes for the industry incoming?

It seems there's been more experimenting with DLC models and releasing expansions to consumers, and what CD Projekt Red is doing with the Witcher is great:
Open Letter from Marcin Iwiński, co-founder and Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT RED.

“We love games. We love collecting them, playing them, and everything connected to that experience. Every time we reach out for a new release, we expect to be taken care of. We expect support if we encounter any problems, we love updates constantly improving the experience, and we feel really special when we receive free content that gives us more than we initially paid for. It doesn’t have to be huge, it can be an awesome skin for a character, or an extra sword, or armor.

Unfortunately this treatment is quite rare these days. As gamers, we nowadays have to hold on tight to our wallets, as surprisingly right after release, lots of tiny pieces of tempting content materialize with a steep price tag attached. Haven’t we just paid a lot of cash for a brand new game?

As CD PROJEKT RED, we strongly believe this is not the way it should work and, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, we have decided to do it differently. Cutting to the chase, everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform. You don’t have to pre-order, you don’t have to buy any special edition to get them -- if you own a copy of Wild Hunt, they’re yours. This is our way of saying thank you for buying our game.”

Regards,
Marcin

The FREE DLC program for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt consists of 16 entirely free DLCs, that will be available for every gamer owning a copy of Wild Hunt, for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PC, and PlayStation®4, and is applicable to all versions (digital or physical, standard or Collector’s).

FullHD-EN_001.png


On February 25th we will release the first bundle of DLCs (2 of the planned 16) -- the Temerian Armor Set (horse armor included) and a Beard and Hairstyle Set for Geralt, the game’s protagonist. After this date, a DLC bundle consisting of two DLCs will be published every week, entirely for free. Gamers are entitled to the free DLC regardless of obtaining the game via pre-order or after launch. Instructions on how to obtain DLCs on specific platforms will be provided at a later date.

For additional details about the 16 FREE DLC program, please refer to the below Q&A

Q: What do I have to do to receive the 16 free DLCs?
A: The only thing you need to do to receive the 16 DLCs is purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. All of the DLCs will be available for free on every platform (i.e. Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4).

Q: Do I have to pre-order to get the free DLCs?
A: No, each piece of content will be available for download regardless of you buying the game before or after launch on February 24th, 2015.

Q: I have the standard version of the game (i.e. not the Collector’s Edition). Do I still get the free DLCs?
A: Yes. You get the 16 DLCs regardless of the version of the game you bought (i.e. standard or Collector's, digital or physical).

Q: What’s the plan? When can I expect the DLCs to be released?
A: The plan is to release a new DLC bundle (each bundle contains two DLCs) on a weekly basis, following the game’s launch February 24th, 2015. The first DLC bundle will be released the next day on February 25th. The next bundle will be available for download a week after that, on March 4th, the next on March 11th, and so on. The first bundle will contain the Temerian Armor Set and a Beard and Hairstyle Set for Geralt. The second bundle will contain an additional quest and an alternative look for one of the game’s main characters -- Yennefer of Vengerberg.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available for pre-order at buy.thewitcher.com.
Looking good.

Reason I ask about change in the industry is if you think other companies will follow suit or will this just be a one-and-done by a well-liked developer? Hopefully we see more of this elsewhere.
 

Silky

Banned
No. CD is just known to be pretty good to their fans.

However, I do appreciate what MP devs like Popcap are doing for MP shooters with their free DLC maps.
 

Woorloog

Banned
No. CD is just known to be pretty good to their fans.

That's what i figure. I very much doubt this will be the standard.

Paid DLC will still be the standard, like before, at first, then perhaps some kind of subscription/microtransaction system but free extra content (think EA Access, PS+ and Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer microtransactions).
At least, that is my prediction.
 
Lol. No.

This is more a publicity stunt than anything else. I doubt they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart.

I'd rather have this than paid DLC. This won't change the industry at all.
 

meppi

Member
^You really have no idea who these people are, do you? :-/

Another reason why I'll get this game day 1 instead of waiting for it to drop beneath €20 like I do with so many games these days that simply aren't worth the asking price.
 
will be available for every gamer owning a copy of Wild Hunt, for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PC, and PlayStation®4,
Hm

I doubt anyone else will follow suit though.
 
Nah, CDPR is an outlier. Much like how developers that release modding tools are outliers compared to the developers that don't.

Also what the fuck Chrome, outlier is a word.

Pointless...

Much like your post? Because I'm not seeing any nuanced opinion.
 
CDPR are legends. It's genuinely refreshing to see a company take a stance like this in comparison to Ubisoft and their need for fucking spreadsheets to explain game versions and related DLC.
Even if I had no interest in TW3 id still buy it to support CDPR
 

robotrock

Banned
"The FREE DLC program for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt consists of 16 entirely free DLCs, that will be available for every gamer owning a copy of Wild Hunt, for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PC, and PlayStation®4, and is applicable to all versions (digital or physical, standard or Collector’s)."

Yes!
 

King_Moc

Banned
Lol. No.

This is more a publicity stunt than anything else. I doubt they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart.

I'd rather have this than paid DLC. This won't change the industry at all.

They're a PC dev and this is how things used to be as standard in the PC space.
 

Nabbis

Member
Nope. EA, Activision and Ubisoft are the sort of companies that rely on amoral business models. If it works, it works. You want change? Stop buying DLC.
 

iNvid02

Member
they've basically crammed a load of stuff into the standard game so its akin to a special edition, no retailers i can see over here are offering any further preorder bullshit (aside from non-game stuff like a poster and a keychain which i have no issues with).

all the usual digital preorder shit is being given away here for free to all, whilst they will probably be charging for a meatier expansion of sorts down the line.

its fair and a step in the right direction. but i dont think it will sway other companies
 

Skilletor

Member
Lol. No.

This is more a publicity stunt than anything else. I doubt they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart.

I'd rather have this than paid DLC. This won't change the industry at all.

It's what they've been doing since Witcher 1. Definitely not a publicity stunt.

The sad thing is that the practices of the industry are so shitty that something they've been doing for years is seen as such.
 

SparkTR

Member
No, they're just doing what PC devs have done since the 1990s. Other console oriented developers/publishers have moved on from that 8 years ago.
 

dreamfall

Member
"On February 25th we will release the first bundle of DLCs (2 of the planned 16) -- the Temerian Armor Set (horse armor included) ..."

I hope that was a playful jab at Bethesda for really ushering in the wonderful world of console DLC...
 
They're a PC dev and this is how things used to be as standard in the PC space.

So what you're telling me is this beard, extra costume, and horse armor couldn't be on the disc at launch? The game is still 3 months away.

I'm not complaining it's free, good for them. But you guys are drinking the kool aid, which is exactly why they are doing this.

If they add actual expansions for free, then color me wrong about this.
 

Woorloog

Banned
"On February 25th we will release the first bundle of DLCs (2 of the planned 16) -- the Temerian Armor Set (horse armor included) ..."

I hope that was a playful jab at Bethesda for really ushering in the wonderful world of console DLC...

Didn't BioWare actually create the DLC concept with Neverwinter Nights premium modules?
 
So what you're telling me is this beard, extra costume, and horse armor couldn't be on the disc at launch? The game is still 3 months away.

I'm not complaining it's free, good for them. But you guys are drinking the kool aid, which is exactly why they are doing this.

If they add actual expansions for free, then color me wrong about this.
In a wasteland where there is no kool-aid, I'll take two cups. Disappointing in a sense yeah, but I feel like we should at least be making note of this more.
 

Murtrod

Member
Change? No...

.

They are the remaining rebels against contemporary industry tactics, but one company ain't gonna to change anything unless the Witcher becomes the sole reason for the downfall of every major game franchise on Earth (a dream of mine, however).
 
Hell no, the rest the industry will continue to sell DLC for a price as long as people keep paying for it.

Vote with your wallet!

Now time to go buy the Destiny Expansions...
 

-MD-

Member
They did it for Witcher 2 and nothing really changed, they're just a great dev and I will continue to support them.
 
Hell naw. This is no trend. It´s just that CDPR are one of the only good guys left. Pure greed has taken all the other ones over already. They simply are the exception to the rule.
 

hohoXD123

Member
Depends really, will Witcher 3 sales benefit from this? Sure. Would any sales bump from doing this outweigh the money made from charging for each of those DLCs? Probably not. Which is a shame, I commend them for going for this approach, the chances of me picking this up brand new close to release just shot up.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
No, this is CD Project RED being CD Project RED. They're sparkling mermaids in a sea of blood hungry sharks.
 

Halabane

Member
They are not the only ones doing stuff like this. Atlus throws in physical items and many of the small companies bringing over JPN games are doing it because they are in the business just like project cd. Indy teams are the same way. Its the big companies that answer to stock holders and have large payrolls that behave differently. They have too. Most of the decision makers are so far removed from the day to day development of the product they don't have the same perspective. The good news is I think the community is really getting behind the small guys and trying to make it work. Who would have thought we would have so many indie titles on so many different platforms.

An example of guy who is a bit different and working for a major developer is phil spensor who is making a difference at xbone. To bad he wasn't in charge when they designed the box.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
No. This is how CDPR works. They should be examples to others on how to communicate with your community and to give them the best work possible. Ya'll just wait till the Enhanced Edition comes out a year after the W3 and adds even more improvements and refinements.
 
Q

Queen of Hunting

Unconfirmed Member
this is just a fuck you to retailer exclusive dlc nothing more.

they are basically saying why should we fuck our buying customers over because they brought from amazon instead of gamestop or walmart or whatever
 
CDPR used to do some flaky stuff in the past but they seemed to have learned from their missteps and I hope financial security stays with them.

Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft

'moneyquote'
 
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