Unbound By Death
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The Witcher 3 Expansion Pass announced - $25
- Thread starter Sn4ke_911
- Start date
Isnt announcing the Expansion now considered been clear about future plans? you wanted them to announce the expansion when they revealed Witcher 3? That would had been a fun thread...
Im very Happy I preordered the Xbox One Collector edition on time to not be left out, and I should be getting my Expansion Pass later today.
SquirrelWide
Member
As mentioned earlier in the thread, they have clearly delineated what counts as DLC (think cosmetic or other small changes) and what counts as a paid expansion (what we have here). It's not dishonesty if you missed or misinterpreted their previous discussions of this issue.
Then wait. On GOG you can buy both the main game and the expansions for $60 now or $70 later. You can also wait until this bundle is discounted later on. In fact, I will do the same, even if I want to support them, but I want to upgrade my PC first. See, it's a choice. The main game is $45 on GOG without any discount. Right now there are many choices for you to do. So just choose what you want. Don't condemn them for releasing additional content. It's nothing new. Companies have been doing it since the 90s. If you want to wait and pay only once but don't want to do it now, then you will have to wait until the additional content is developed.
Why? They've had at least 4 months being content complete, probably a lot more than that for artists, writers and some designers. I'm sure this was always part of their plans at some point, but it seems cynical to assume it was cut from the base game.
matrixman92
Member
people are actually complaining about this? for reals?
a new big release PC game here costs 50 (or 60 if its COD, most new ubisoft games, GTA, etc). a new console game costs 70
the average monthly salary in portugal is 600. I say average to be polite because most people make less than that (minimum wage is about 490, maybe its 500 now im not sure)
a videogame costs 10%
ChosenPredator
Banned
thats massive for a expansion thats like the old school days where expansion meant something lol
Why would you need to pretend? They said back at PAX that they were starting to work on the DLC. The game is off to MS/Sony for certification and will probably be gold within a week or two.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
Well of course they do. I wonder if someone in these countries even buying games at such prices. It's just ridiculous.
I know how it sounds, really, I do, but if I can buy 5 or so full games on Steam for that price, why should I buy this Expansion set? It is really simple question if you'll start to think about it. What would you do in my place for example if you have 1000 RUB in your wallet? Will you buy this Expansion set or 5 full and very good games on Steam right now? I think the answer is obvious.
They should had told us that we have to pay for the future DLCs after announcing the free DLC pack with pre-order of the base game, you know, to prepare as for this whole thing that we know now. But nope, they've started to talk about that paid DLCs is wrong and that they will change this by offering us free DLCs as a pre-order bonus. We all know that expansions is an artefact of the long forgotten past and almost no one is making them right now preferring to release DLCs. So I see it as an excuse to make us pay for them.
Damn, with 200+ hours in the base game do we really need to pay for another 50 hours? Somehow I doubt that even 60% of people will actually finish the base game, not to mention DLCs and "expansion packs".
YankeeDonB
Member
Psyched for Witcher 3, but not going to spring for an expansion before I even play the main game. In 6 months, having played the game, if in the mood for an expansion, I'll get it when it releases.
This seems an obvious attempt to work around the fact that, no matter how much they liked it, some proportion of your game's players will have moved on by the time any reasonable expansion is released, and won't have the impetus to dive back in. Especially with large RPGs, only a tiny minority are going to 100% the main game. For me, anyway, an expansion release for such games always reminds me how much of the original side content I've yet to finish, which then disincentivizes paying for yet more content. Cleverly, they're trying to sell the extra content while hype is highest. Curious how many extra sales this will produce.
This seems an obvious attempt to work around the fact that, no matter how much they liked it, some proportion of your game's players will have moved on by the time any reasonable expansion is released, and won't have the impetus to dive back in. Especially with large RPGs, only a tiny minority are going to 100% the main game. For me, anyway, an expansion release for such games always reminds me how much of the original side content I've yet to finish, which then disincentivizes paying for yet more content. Cleverly, they're trying to sell the extra content while hype is highest. Curious how many extra sales this will produce.
In Brazil, at the moment, US$ 45 is around R$ 141. That's the game (GOG version), no discount or expansions. GOG doesn't offer Reais as a currency. We also pay importing taxes, since it's in another currency. Origin doesn't offer the expansions (at least not for me) at the moment, so they are selling the main game for R$ 99 (US$ 32), with no discount included. On Steam, the main game is R$ 106 (US$ 34), with no discount included.
The package with the extension on GOG costs US$60. That is around R$ 188. On Steam, the same package is R$ 170 (US$ 55).
I should mention that, at the moment, Brazil has a huge economic crisis and our currency is extremely devalued, so every other currency for us got more expensive. At the moment, US$ 1 is R$ 3.13. In 2013, it was R$ 1.70. In 2014, R$ 2.50.
EDIT: Oh, and our minimum wage per month is R$ 780.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Hey look, is a 30 hours expansion. Like in the old PC games! Lets create an uproar.
Im a big witcher fan, of book and games, and Im not going to preorder it until I beat the game (that I already preordered in its special limited edition). Even the dev says the same thing in the PR note. Just do that.
We are still going to get 16 small DLCs.
YOU. DONT. NEED. TO. BUY. IT NOW.
And I dont understand the surprise of some people here, they already said that for them to make a dlc to buy, it needed to be really big, like an old expansion. And thats actually what they are doing.
What are artists, writters and programmers going to do while small part of the team is giving the game the final polish touches and ironing bugs, twiddle their thumbs? Of course they are going to work in expansions.
Im a big witcher fan, of book and games, and Im not going to preorder it until I beat the game (that I already preordered in its special limited edition). Even the dev says the same thing in the PR note. Just do that.
We are still going to get 16 small DLCs.
YOU. DONT. NEED. TO. BUY. IT NOW.
And I dont understand the surprise of some people here, they already said that for them to make a dlc to buy, it needed to be really big, like an old expansion. And thats actually what they are doing.
What are artists, writters and programmers going to do while small part of the team is giving the game the final polish touches and ironing bugs, twiddle their thumbs? Of course they are going to work in expansions.
SmoothRunningGun
Member
Well played cd prj. Well played.
But they were clear that they only dont believe in charging for those small extra (Go play Ass Creed Unity to see), while something bigger that actually requires real work put in could come at a price, Before this thread I wasn't aware of the comments they made about Free DLC or Expansion at all, and for me it doesn't matter what they said before or are saying now, I expend my money on previous experience + gameplay footage, I cant go on reading every bit of news to try and nitpick on semantics and spoil and affect my purchase.
It just crazy to believe that a Developer/publisher will release content worth on maybe 30 plus hour of gameplay for free, no matter what you interpret what they are saying.
Will you have more fun with The Witcher III or 5 other games? It varies from person to person. A huge Witcher fan would probably choose it. If you are talking about pre-ordering the expansions and waiting 6-12 months for them to release, you could argue the same for any other pre-order. Then again, if I had pre-ordered The Witcher III back when US$ 1 was R$ 2.50, I would pay less than now.
If you aren't going to finish the game why pay for the dlc? Your problem solved itself. Why should you pay for an extra 50 hours content? Because content doesn't make itself. It costs money.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
Yeah, I think I won't be buying the base game this year and will wait for a year or so and then buy the whole pack. Plus, I don't think that my PC (FX 8350, 8 GB RAM, HD 7950) can handle the game even on high settings in 900p with constant 60 FPS, so it is also batter to just wait and see how well it will be optimized.
I know about what they have said back in 2011, but they haven't released any paid DLC for Witcher 2, there was only EE with complete new content which was offered for free for the owners of the original game. That was very good thing to do btw, not many developers doing such a thing.
Planned for and wasn't included in the base game sounds like a cut to me. But again, it's just an assumption, not a fact.
Super Stardust
Member
Nice, this seems similar to skyrims dlc which was awesome
They're actually advising against buying it if you have any doubts.
I suppose it makes the simply the most business sense to offer this right now and not half a year later.
I mean, they're selling it now so that they can get some extra revenue upfront and because a lot of people buy season passes for games ahead of time when they never would have done so at the point the season pass content actually comes out, even if they ended up liking the main game.
It's a pragmatic choice. And it's not attempting to aggressively incentivize it like "get the expansion pass now or you're FUCKED," EA style. And they're promising 30 hours of content, on a time table that sounds like it's leaving the entirety of the development of the content until after they ship the main game.
So...I have no reason to be upset whatsoever. I also don't have any actual reason to buy the expansion pass right now, either, except as a gesture of support for CDP. All seems pretty innocuous though.
It's a pragmatic choice. And it's not attempting to aggressively incentivize it like "get the expansion pass now or you're FUCKED," EA style. And they're promising 30 hours of content, on a time table that sounds like it's leaving the entirety of the development of the content until after they ship the main game.
So...I have no reason to be upset whatsoever. I also don't have any actual reason to buy the expansion pass right now, either, except as a gesture of support for CDP. All seems pretty innocuous though.
Important to mention: the free DLC isn't exclusive to pre-order. It's for everyone. Think of it like a patch to the main game. See why it's important to distinguish the DLC and the expansions? One is free for all, another is paid and optional. As for planning additional content ahead, I can use my own example: I am a developer and I am planning additional content for my game now, before release. There's no evil reason we won't develop for it now, since we won't even charge for them. But you have to develop support for additional content. And why plan for them at all? To keep users engaged. You don't want them to play your game once and forget it later. In CDPR's case, they also need to be sure voice actors will be available. They can't say "hey, we want to release expansions later. We didn't even touch them now, but we will." Six months later, maybe it didn't work for some reason. Or consumers complain that it's taking too long.
The story for these games are probably planned years in advance. At some point they need to decide what their shipped product is going to be and hit it. The rest goes into future content.
Also, this "I'm going to accuse them of cutting content, but we'll never know so you can't try to hold me accountable!" shit is annoying and the ultimate cop out. Please stop.
YankeeDonB
Member
Oh, nothing against CDPR. I generally respect them. But no matter what they SAY about whether or not you should buy it now, they wouldn't release the expansions with the main game if they didn't think it would increase sales for the expansion. And I think the primary way it will do so (as noted by others above) is by selling to a bunch of hyped fans, some proportion of whom would not have bought it 5 months hence (even if they liked the base game).
As you said, it's good business sense. I think it's marginally icky in its exploitation of psychology, but less so than what most publishers/developers do. And as I doubt there's any room in the market for totally non-icky AAA development anymore, I don't hold it against them.
firebranded
Member
I say this is how it should be, true content added on for a very nice price. Sounds like a great value proposition as it is. I'll support you CPR.
Because some people think everybody else owes them.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
I don't ask them to release these expansions for free, it's just the price for them is... well, inappropriate in my country. I really like what Ubisoft did with Blood Dragon for example which I have bought day one because of the low price, but now... I don't see it happening considering the current situation.
I will have more fun with 5 other games than with Witcher 3 expansions for sure. The value is just not in the side of CDPR and their content in this situation as far as I'm concerned. Oh and did I have mentioned that they have changed the price for the game twice already? I usualy don't pre-order the games before 2 or so days before release (well, you never know what may happen... another delay or anything else, plus pre-ordering games long before release without knowing if they are good or not is not my style) and now I have to pay twice as much than a year ago.
I didn't said that I won't finish that game, I only said that 60% of people may not finish it (it's 200+ hours man, the game must be REALLY good to make people playing it for that long and explore every freaking pixel).
Oh man, the game is 200+ hours long with a HUGE... MASSIVE replay value considering all of the choices from the first two games, some people will be playing the game for months and months before even get close to the end. I remember myself playing Morrowind for 2 years in a row without any mods and still not finished the game by then (I still didn't finished Skyrim with all DLCs for Christ's sake), it was so huge, massive and so full of content that it wasn't really necessary to release more content for it, not even Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions. Same thing with Witcher 3. However, this will be the last Witcher game so I guess they didn't have much of a choice but not to include not finished content in the base game and release it later in a finished state as paid DLCs.
StarCraft expansions are nowhere near the gold standard, they are a measly 6 hour campaign with years of development time and a handful of new units per faction.
SanguineShark
Member
Same issue. It's rare for me to go back.
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Sounds like a fair deal to me, are people upset about this?
Dual Blade
Member
There is a developer that's trying to represent and respect my rights and being clear about their DLC plans?
Dragon Ages DLC so far is not even 1/4 of this length and is almost the same cost!
If I enjoy W3 I will definitely get this pass (and break my "season pass virginity").
Dragon Ages DLC so far is not even 1/4 of this length and is almost the same cost!
If I enjoy W3 I will definitely get this pass (and break my "season pass virginity").
indigo-cyclops
Member
Fuck it, I'll pay that. Even if each content is half the amount of what they say that is still pretty damn good.
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
So is selling a game before it is out.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
In other words - terrible practice, which back in the day had some meaning and reasoning behind it, but today... today it is only about profits, numbers and other corporate crap like this.
texhnolyze
Banned
No idea.
Reading the posts on the first page gave me a headache.
People want expansions for free as well?
ROUGE_BLOCK
Member
Awesome, an actually expansion pack that adds tons of content! They're so damn rare these days.
This sounds perfectly reasonable to me. There is a huge difference between charging $4 for a few weapons and $10-$15 for 10+ hour long expansions. I have absolutely zero issues with paying for meaningful content, and I wish more publishers would take this route. Ubisoft does something similar with most of their games. While they still have the small nickle and dime bullshit that I wish they would do away with, they do put out DLC that offer a meaningful amount of new content for $10-15. What CDPR is doing seems similar to that if not an even better value while giving away the nickle and dime bullshit for free, and that's awesome.
FF Seraphim
Member
I think people are upset because of the time placement of the announcement. The game was supposed to be out in March/April and it's been delayed and are now hearing about DLC being made for it. I think they just ran the PR statement too early. If they waited for when the game had already gone gold and was like "to show further support we are making an expansion!!". I think it would of gone better.
Kabuki Waq
Member
The expansion is longer with more content than most full priced games......for 25 it seems fair.
texhnolyze
Banned
For Pete's sake, it's expansion not DLC.
Is expansion an uncommon term in console world?
DLC aren't considered as expansions because of their lengths by the majority.
We just don't know the lenghts and the content quality of these expansions, they're announcing.