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OS Neutral Witcher 3 will have 16 DLCs - for free

iMacFarlane

iMacFarlane

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2012
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Adrift in a sea of possibilities
That sounds great, but makes no sense. Why make 16 DLCs and give them away for free? Wouldn't it be better just to include them in your game and release your epic all at once?

If it's due to time, and they want to develop the story, characters, environments, etc. after release, wow. That really would be something!
 
C

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
iMacFarlane said:
That sounds great, but makes no sense. Why make 16 DLCs and give them away for free? Wouldn't it be better just to include them in your game and release your epic all at once?

If it's due to time, and they want to develop the story, characters, environments, etc. after release, wow. That really would be something!
Click to expand...

It's marketing. It's a way for them to differentiate themselves from Ubisoft and EA. Can't say I blame them, though.
 
V

vbedia

macrumors regular
Jan 25, 2014
155
28
iMacFarlane said:
That sounds great, but makes no sense. Why make 16 DLCs and give them away for free? Wouldn't it be better just to include them in your game and release your epic all at once?

If it's due to time, and they want to develop the story, characters, environments, etc. after release, wow. That really would be something!
Click to expand...


I read some of the DLC included a horse armor, some new hair styles for Gareth, etc.. so I don't think they are going to affect much the game main story.

By releasing new DLC every week or two weeks for free, you make the media talk about the game and gamers as well, I don't see it as a bad marketing strategy.

----------
Washac said:
Still no system requirements announced as yet.
Click to expand...



I have started to think that this game will be one that my current rMBP won't be able to run accordingly to my needs.

I reckon low resolution 1024x720, most graphic choices turned off, no AA, no AF.. shame.
 
Renzatic

Renzatic

Suspended
Aug 3, 2011
9,561
10,118
Gramps, what the hell am I paying you for?
vbedia said:
I have started to think that this game will be one that my current rMBP won't be able to run accordingly to my needs.

I reckon low resolution 1024x720, most graphic choices turned off, no AA, no AF.. shame.
Click to expand...

It's gonna take a helluva machine to run. If you look at The Witcher 2, it was optimized to hell and back over the course of its life (at least on Windows it was), and it still required a pretty sharp machine to run with all the bells and whistles on.

Just by looking at the pictures, and watching the videos, you can easily see it's even more detailed and graphically intense than The Witcher 2 was, so I can imagine it'll require that much more hardware to run well.

Apple's current lineup of desktops will be able to run it well, but I think their laptops are gonna be SOL as far as this game goes.
 
xSinghx

xSinghx

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Oct 2, 2012
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iMacFarlane said:
That sounds great, but makes no sense. Why make 16 DLCs and give them away for free? Wouldn't it be better just to include them in your game and release your epic all at once?

If it's due to time, and they want to develop the story, characters, environments, etc. after release, wow. That really would be something!
Click to expand...

Quoting from the CEO's open letter on the subject:

"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."

Personally I think console owners may be a bit more sensitive to DLC pricing given they probably deal with it more often on games like CoD, Destiny, etc than maybe pc and mac owners since most pc/mac games don't really carry much DLC. So for console owners this is probably a great incentive and value from the start. No need to wait for game of the a year edition etc.

As far as timeline CD Projekt Red has already moved the release date back from 2014 to 2015 to ensure a smooth launch so all the DLC is likely stuff they'll be working on and adding afterwards to keep buzz up on the game, giving it a longer life. But more importantly they probably just aspire to have their game and company highly respected amongst the competition and realize (long term) it's not in their interest to squeeze money from players at every possible opportunity (Blizzard, EA) or hamstring a game experience with junky DRM (Uplay, Ubisoft).

Remember this game is bigger than Skyrim, has a 50hr main storyline with some 30+ endings, and over 100hrs of gameplay so 16DLCs on top of that and you start to see the massive ambition the Witcher 3 is carrying from the start.
 
antonis

antonis

macrumors 68020
Jun 10, 2011
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So, there are still some AAA game creators left, that insist on respecting their customers. Although a minority, still feels nice.
 
V

VI™

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2010
636
1
Shepherdsturd, WV
I still have to finish the second one. After purchasing a capable notebook that I could actually play some games on, I pretty much stopped using my gaming desktop even though it has way better performance.
 
cluthz

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
Releasing free DLC has as someone said earlier the huge benefit of getting free publicity over time. But, it also gives the devs more time to finish the game and then after it's release they can spend time on horse armors and other things.

CDPR has shown time after time that they are a company that takes care of their customers and their business model is fair.

However their mac ports have been atrocious.
 
V

VI™

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2010
636
1
Shepherdsturd, WV
cluthz said:
Releasing free DLC has as someone said earlier the huge benefit of getting free publicity over time. But, it also gives the devs more time to finish the game and then after it's release they can spend time on horse armors and other things.

CDPR has shown time after time that they are a company that takes care of their customers and their business model is fair.

However their mac ports have been atrocious.
Click to expand...

Did they do the ports themselves or was it a 3rd party company that did them?
 
cluthz

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
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VI™ said:
Did they do the ports themselves or was it a 3rd party company that did them?
Click to expand...

First port was wine, and they never claimed it to be anything else.

However second port was done by Virtual Programming.
Getting support for W2 was impossible and the port was truly terrible.

Same goes for most of their other ports. Crusader Kings 2 had graphical issues and loading times was seriously long. Europa Universalis 3 was crashing like every 15 minutes on my MBA.

If CDPR doesn't make an in-house Mac port, then I hope they will team up with Feral or Aspyr, because they actually seems to do good work and actually listens to their customers and give replies when they are confronted by customers.
 
xSinghx

xSinghx

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The Witcher 3 is on Sale (20% off) this weekend for $48 on GoG (http://www.gog.com/thewitcher3/en) for those interested.

Since CD Projekt Red owns GoG buying from GoG helps support the developer more than buying from other retailers.
 
UniDoubleU

UniDoubleU

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2014
160
1
Thailand
I like CD Projekt Red much more than the behemoths (Looking at you EA and Ubisoft). These days a lot of games are released unfinished with day-one patches then loads of expensive DLCs. This provides little incentive to buy any brand new game at all seeing how everything will be on sale at some point.

I never finished the first game, gameplay was kind of clunky though the lore was pretty interesting. Hell, I found Neverwinter Nights 2 gameplay more smooth. I really want to get into The Witcher 2 some time before the launch, but guess I probably need to hurry as I don't buy brand new games anyway.
 
xSinghx

xSinghx

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As the Witcher 3 is upon us I thought it might be worthwhile to point out the Witcher 1&2 are currently on sale at GoG.com along with the Witcher Adventure Game, up to 85% off.

http://www.gog.com/promo/weekly_staff_picks_the_witcher_franchise_110515

So far CD Projekt Red has been getting some pretty high praise for this latest installment of the Witcher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbNIYBZBVSY&spfreload=10

______________________
Darksiders, Saint's Row, Ethan Carter, and Metro Titles and bunch of others also have price cuts atm.

http://www.gog.com/games##search=darksiders|saints row|metro last light&sort=bestselling&page=1

http://www.gog.com/promo/weekend_promo_big_hitters_150515
 
Washac

Washac

macrumors 68030
Jul 2, 2006
2,511
128
iMacFarlane said:
That sounds great, but makes no sense. Why make 16 DLCs and give them away for free? Wouldn't it be better just to include them in your game and release your epic all at once?
Click to expand...

I thought that also.

That's one hell of a clever sales pitch to make people think they are getting loads of stuff for free on release.
 
Hakiroto

Hakiroto

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2011
641
221
Despite playing quite a few games on this iMac (spec below), I decided to go PS4 for this game. I'm guessing it'll look as good on there as it does on this iMac (at native resolution with settings that give me reasonable FPS) so I'm happy with that choice.
 
antonis

antonis

macrumors 68020
Jun 10, 2011
2,085
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The main game is huge anyway. Gamespot's video review calls it huge and graded it with a 10. The reviewer said that he played for 100 hours through the main story and still had left with lots of things to do.

The DLC - especially since it's coming for free - is actually content that couldn't make it to the game release deadline, due to bugs, incomplete etc. As far as DLC is not used to milk people's wallets, it's a good thing as it keeps the game alive longer.

There will also be expansions, that won't be free.
 
deadwulfe

deadwulfe

macrumors 6502a
Feb 18, 2010
737
3
Washac said:
That's one hell of a clever sales pitch to make people think they are getting loads of stuff for free on release.
Click to expand...

I do think part of it is marketing. These days large companies are constantly releasing games with tons of DLC for sale. CDPR is making a statement by releasing tons of DLC for free.

What I think some of the other part of it is, is that they have additional ideas that lay beyond the initial scope/plan of the original game. These ideas are going to take materially more time than the desired release date will allow. Why delay a game for 2-3 years when you can just release those additional ideas as DLC, letting customers enjoy the game as-is while the DLC is being developed.

Additionally, I think some of the other part is that it seems to fit their ecosystem. The Witcher 1 was a passion project. They made enough money creating something they enjoyed that allowed them to continue their passion and create a sequel. People who love what they do (I'm assuming this is CDPR leadership in this case) want to share their art with the world as soon as possible and they don't want to ruin the magic of sharing what they love--creating something special. Selling the DLC for money would kind of ruin that magic, making their game just like every other triple-A title release.

I discovered W1 after the enhanced edition was released, but I stuck around to buy W2 at release. If it's all marketing and I'm completely wrong with my opinions then it is some very clever marketing, because I do think they have something special and I hope this grows to other companies, even if it is an illusion.
 
koyoot

koyoot

macrumors 603
Jun 5, 2012
5,939
1,853
Its just making the game alive a lot of time after the release.

One of reasons Developers are going away from traditional sales is the fact, that games dies soon after the release, and were not bringing money after. Huge spike in salary after the release, and then huge spike in decrease of sales.

Blizzard went one of the smartest ways in this business: game in 3 parts each other sold separately, but requires earlier release to play. SC2, and D3 are still alive.

Free 2 Play are a different story. But yet, DLCs are one of the ways to keep the game alive after the release.
 
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