NEWS
The Witcher 3 and DLC
While it's always exciting to anticipate the launch of a new title, in recent years there has been the stigma of DLC. Accusations of games being released incomplete so that companies can cash in for more money down the line, and sometimes even on the day of launch are common. Some games throw out map pack after map pack for anywhere of $5 to $20 or character and customization packs to try to pull in another pretty penny as well. So when CD PROJEKT RED's Marcin Iwínski revealed in an open letter that there will be 16 pieces of free downloadable content available to everyone who purchases The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, many were shocked but in a very good way.
“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.”
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.”
Well done CD PROJEKT RED, well done. It's always nice when a company treats its customers like people and not like sales figures. So far only a few pieces of DLC have been revealed, with the remaining twelve to be revealed at a later date.