I find it wholly mistaken to say that making Gwent available on the more mainstream platforms is anything other than NORMAL.
I'm more worried for GOG than Gwent. Either way, they're doing alright and just doing their best to compete without losing themselves in the process.
They may have fought for too long against Steam since they had their own thing. That's understandable. People do that when they have options, especially when they have something that is uniquely theirs. Now, it's a tradeoff between a (bit) larger share in the profits from owning the platform vs. more visibility and players. Gwent wins with it, GOG surely loses (not sure what the deal with Steam is for F2P games). Overall, it might be better for CDPR.
It was just meant to happen. For some, Steam is more convenient. For everyone, Steam just has more people. They learned a very hard lesson with Thronebreaker (THAT seemed desperate) and I'm surprised they're only doing the Steam release now!
Gwent on Steam should be seen as a result of much thought and testing, it's simply
CONSOLIDATION of the platforms that make sense for the game. Cutting consoles, favoring mobile (Switch included), and being on the top PC platforms (Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk on Epic too, Gwent may follow) - all perfect decisions.
Gwent on Steam means they are
ALREADY PROMOTING, even though more is necessary. They've been doing it mildly in different ways and will have that opportunity repeatedly going forward: 1) expansions; 2) journey/pass; 3) esports; 4) patch changes/content/events (and possible tie-ins with Netflix for years). But you can't market yourself if you're not in the market first. Now they are.
Gwent on Steam means they are
ALREADY POLISHING the product more, being compared to what exists on other platforms and accountable to 3rd parties. They're fixing the worst bugs quickly, and bugs are always fun and memorable anyway, every game has them. Their plan for this year is to iterate and polish the game's systems and visuals. Skins and animations currently underway, arena revamp already promised sometime soon.
You need a mature product to be in this situation. What you're seeing lately is the game setting up systems to sustain itself and bring revenue in the long run. Content has been coming (seasonal trees, journey, 2x/year expansions) and it does seem they are putting their production pipeline in place for the future, pandemics nonwithstanding.
See this more like them releasing their precious child out into the world once and for all, as a grown-up! Always keep in mind this is a learning process for CDPR and it has been great since Gwent definitely is an unique accomplishment in its combination of game design and flavor!
/anti-rant out!