3rd expansion and beyond...

[msg4gsm]

3rd expansion and beyond...

As opposed to a thread which focuses solely on what content would be good to have included in future potential expansions, I am opening this thread as a means to get the general feeling, and feedback from the community on "IF" there will be any additional major expansions after 'Hearts of Stone' & 'Blood and Wine'.??? With support already acknowledged by CDPR until 2017, and "Hearts of Stone" confirmed as "almost complete", it certainly leaves quite a bit of time between the 2016 first quarter release of "Blood and Wine" and the end of the aforementioned support window. Sooooo........

The ultimate PR and community-based move would be if CDPR put out a vote for one of a few pre-selected themes (3 for example) for an expansion, and allowed the community to pick which one they wanted. I can't think of any other potential content that would create more buzz, please more fans and ensure financial success, then a fan-based/community expansion chosen via vote. Talk about redefining the genre. TW3 is the ideal vehicle for a game-changing move like this. CDPR would be even more heralded as cutting-edge, fan/community friendly, and industry pioneers than they already are.

O to dream !!

 

[CoconutChriss]

O to dream !!

Let's dream together. Just imagine CDPR putting all that stuff back into act 3 that was cut because of time contraints.... *instant gamergasm

 

[Garrison72]

Time to move on. Chances are the expansions will be bigger than advertised anyway, knowing CDPR. They have a goliath-sized task in Cyberpunk, which has complex game mechanics up the wazoo, way more than Witcher has ever had. They'll need the full team to get it right. I know some fans don't want to hear it but CP is likely to become the dominant IP.

 

[Riven-Twain]

While it's a very interesting and attractive fantasy, I suspect that @Garrison72 is correct: they'll likely continue to gradually shift more and more of their resources and personnel over to Cyberpunk 2077 within the next two years. There's certainly plenty of room for more expansions to The Witcher III, and they've no end of support, votes, and suggestions from their community of admirers; however, as I've remarked before, do they really want to get stuck as 'The Witcher Company'? As artists, engineers, and gamers, I suspect they -- like many people -- would wish to move on to new horizons of creativity and innovation. Granted, not all players of The Witcher Series are going to follow them over to Cyberpunk (I won't, as it's just not my genre), and they'll lose some of their base, but if they want to expand, rather than remain stationary, they'll need to move into other fields. This doesn't completely rule out the possibility of another small Expansion, as the material is fertile enough to produce one, and it would definitely generate revenue from the players. As to whether they'd take votes . . . .

 

[Kidoki]

I also agree that they will probably shift most people to CP2077. But i still dream.

Maybe if the community in general really shows how we want more content we can get some. An expansion... maybe. But just some good additional content would be nice! Like, small quests or something like that.

A full expansion with the overall "theme" chosen by community voting as suggested by OP would be the absolutely best thing ever. For us and CDPR.


@RivenII "Fixed" that.

 

[cyberpunkforever]

there are other threads about this

 

[Riven-Twain]

I would love some Zerrikania in this game!

The original poster's intentions were to avoid posting what we'd like to specifically see here, but rather to discuss the the possibility of future expansions as a whole.

We've many threads devoted to suggestions, and 'wish-lists', such as here: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/34313-FREE-DLC-and-EXPANSION-PACK-ideas-for-devs-to-ponder-)

 

[willcurtis057]

3/4 of a year is more than enough time to develop a large amount of content, so it is likely to be either a third expansion or a enhanced edition. otherwise they would move onto cyberpunk straight away after releasing blood and wine. there are a few things in the trailers that didn't make it in the final game so if they do anything I would say an enhanced edition would be more likely than another expansion.

or they may just move all but a few people to cyberpunk after blood and wine and the ones still left on the witcher 3 will just keep patching the game until 2017.

 

[CyrusTheRestless]

I don't know what I'd prefer more. A Director's Cut/Enhanced Edition of the Witcher 3 with as much content that had to be abandoned during the development cycle (time constraints are a bitch) or a third expansion. Both would sell incredibly well, but I think the latter would sell better. Either way I'll be good if Three Jackdaws, Vea, and Tea make an appearance.

Edit: Shameless plug, maybe a post-epilogue Ciri, Lambert, or Eskel expansion (like the Arkham series, but better).

 

[gtcarlson]

Considering there's lots of work to be done before you even start with the actual game side of an expansion (writing and concept art) I'm betting any poll would have to occur just after the first expansion.

My guess if any additional content is in the cards it is already in planning stages and will go into development based on the first expansion sales.

If however they were to do a poll I would pick an extended edition of Witcher 3 (ie adding in cut content) over a 3rd expansion. That could be marketed mid next year or something with both expansions and the enhanced edition.

 

[killkenny1]

Lets just get the first two, and then think about the rest...

 

[Pug.]

I don't see what's wrong with being known as "the Witcher company." Every major developer has its bread and butter. Kojima's been making Metal Gear since the dawn of man, Bioware has Mass Effect, Bethesda is on its fifth Elder Scrolls game (and that's if you don't include the spin-offs like Red Guard). CDPR has already said that there probably isn't going to be a fourth game in the series, or at least not for a long time, so why not continue with a few more expansions? Most of the development on the Witcher has already shifted over to the Krakow team, anyways, leaving the bulk of CDPR Warsaw to transition over to Cyberpunk. This is a large company, they can work on more than one title at a time.

At any rate, as regards the OP's suggestion that CDPR take a poll and use that as the basis for a third or fourth expansion's story-line .... that, I'm not so sure about. We seem to forget that at least six million people purchased Wild Hunt. Out of those, how many actually frequent the forums? Two, three hundred at most? That's about .00005% of the fanbase. And when have we ever agreed on anything as a community? I'd rather they come up with their own narratives.

 

[Tangsta]

A third expansion pack would only make sense in allowing the devs to truly complete and flesh out the story they wanted to tell for Geralt's last adventure. Beyond that I think is unnecessary as they would end up using great ideas which should be reserved for the next Witcher game.

Those who have been following my posts would know that I am a big advocate of more Wild Hunt and Eredin character developments, as I felt they were grossly lacking in the vanilla game. If I were ever to want a 3rd expansion pack for The Witcher 3, it would be for this very purpose.

 

[Riven-Twain]

If they were to do future Witcher work, perhaps a more productive focus for their energies would be to concentrate on creating an 'Enhanced Edition', or 'Director's Cut', of Wild Hunt, rather than more completely new content in expansions. There are quite a few points which could possibly be redressed in the base game, as many people have already remarked.

 

[Pug.]

If they were to do future Witcher work, perhaps a more productive focus for their energies would be to concentrate on creating an 'Enhanced Edition', or 'Director's Cut', of Wild Hunt, rather than more completely new content in expansions. There are quite a few points which could possibly be redressed in the base game, as many people have already remarked.

I'd welcome that. Perhaps fleshing out Ciri's relationship with Yennefer and Geralt some more, or expanding on the back story of the Wild Hunt, the Crones, or any number of other characters.

 

[Guest 3842753]

They mentioned in a recent video some features that were cut like ice skating, axe/dagger throwing, drinking minigame, traveling to frozen version of Novigrad, etc.
It's possible they have working prototypes for many of these features so they may polish them up and introduce them in a future enhanced edition or xpack.
Fleshing out the endgame state, Wild Hunt, White Frost, Ciri-Yen connection would be other areas to improve.

 

[BLACK_CAT_ANIME]

Someday I would like CDPR to do a re-imagining of the Witcher in the eyes of the author of the books. I don't mind if they break away from the choices and have Geralt react like he would in the books. I haven't read the books but I've read up on what some of them contained and about Geralt being way more powerful than he is in the games and much better with the signs than he is now. I would love to see a game with the author's vision and see how that would be done in a game format. I would like to see how Triss for example would behave if she was cannon to the books and not taking advantage of Geralt. It would be awesome if the author was over seeing it

 

[Alixus10]

I think CDPR has indicated that there are only 2 planned expansions. As much as I would love to see a 3rd, I'm not holding my breath. If we are to get any additional content it will probably come in the form of more free DLC (extra side missions, maybe viper school witcher armour....etc)

 

[Tomice158]

Interesting fact:
Some time ago there were press releases stating "Blood and Wine" gets 150.000€ funding from the EU cultural budget. Those articles also mentioned the total budget for B&W. It is supposed to cost "only" 2 million €, compared to at least 35 millions for the original game (70 if marketing budget is added).

This means that already having the engine ready dramatically cuts the cost of each hour of added gameplay (300.000 vanilla, 100.000 expansion).

Given that W3 is - despite all downgrade debates - one of the best looking and most hardware-demanding games on the market, they could easily publish content in 2016 or even 2017 without risking to look outdated. Especially since some of the engine improvements made for CP2077 can probably be implemented into TW3 as well. It's not like a new console generation would raise the average graphics level anytime soon.

All summed up, I'm pretty sure that creating a third expansion is economically and technically feasible.



So IMHO a decision against further content would either have capacity reasons (not being able to hire enough devs to work on 2 games simultaneously for extended periods) or creative/quality reasons. By the latter I mean e.g. not wanting to stretch Geralds story any more at this time. Or not wanting to introduce a new protagonist (Ciri?) within the limited frame of an expansion (even if it's a big one).

 

[web-head91]

If they were to do future Witcher work, perhaps a more productive focus for their energies would be to concentrate on creating an 'Enhanced Edition', or 'Director's Cut', of Wild Hunt, rather than more completely new content in expansions. There are quite a few points which could possibly be redressed in the base game, as many people have already remarked.

i agree, this would be most welcomed, as many problems are currently present with the main narrative, namely the third act, and the under-developped antagonists.
they'd take their time with it and release it in a year for instance, and it would tweak the game, and add content in a way that makes sense.