Based on some previous speculations and comments from this thread, I think this move is to remove all the expansion kegs and only have Ultimate Keg and Faction Keg and when the next expansion hits, the ONLY way to get the expansion keg is to get it through Pre-Orders. So, if you want to quickly build your expansion collection, you will have to pre-order it or good luck getting it from ultimate kegs. From player's perspective, it would seems like a horrible move (and it is for the players), but for CDPR it would make sense. What is the point of pre-ordering when just by spending 5000 ores you can get ALMOST ALL cards you are ever going to get from the expansion kegs? And as always, there will be so much powercreep that you will have to pre-order otherwise suffer in front of the new powerful cards. Just my speculations.. I wish I am thoroughly wrong, though.
This is pretty much my expectation too. Like I said above, CDPR have been making more and more moves like this of late. They are clearly looking for ways to encourage more purchases. Their prior aim to make money through mostly cosmetic sales was laudable, but perhaps wasn't bringing in enough.
Despite all the reward nerfs, the game is still just throwing keys at players, which enables us to earn hundreds of kegs without paying any additional money. They can't easily cut the number of keys or kegs without too much outcry, so making the kegs less targetted and hence less useful is a subtle way of nerfing card acquisition. They've already made premium cards, especially legendaries, extremely difficult to obtain without spending money, perhaps they are now targetting standard card acquisition too.
Removing the ability to obtain expansion kegs without paying real money as you say above, would be another way of "encouraging" more real money sales. Incidentally, what's to say the next change won't be to make expansion cards non-craftable for a set period after the expansion drops? Is this what you were thinking with what you said above?
As I said previously, if CDPR need to nerf resource rewards in order to make sufficient money from Gwent to keep it going, fair enough. I just would prefer them to be open about it, rather than trying to pretend they are making changes for other spurious reasons. It just creates distrust and bad feelings.
I spent a lot of money buying kegs in Beta, so I am fortunate to have plenty of scraps still to play with. These keg changes won't affect my ability to obtain new cards without expansion kegs (for now). Again though, this just makes things worse for newer players. It will also further separate the scrap rich Beta players from the newer players, which may cause some resentment. I just worry for the health of the game as a whole.
Personally, I think Journey seems like it could be the most dependable money maker, as long as they don't keep making it less appealing to buy. If the vast majority of players see that as fun and great value and basically a "no brainer", surely that should provide a solid source of regular income? I guess that is the "carrot" approach, perhaps it is not working and they are now looking more at the "stick" options?
