The business, economics, and profits of CD Projekt RED, GWENT: The Witcher card video game and selling.

[Balloers100]

I Have read the whole thread (whooo) and there are a couple of things that I would like to clarify:

- When putting certain things in to Marcins mouth please read what was said - I assume you are referring to this http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-06-cd-projekt-announces-generous-witcher-3-dlc-plan - Marcin never said he does not like micro-transactions or DLC - he has said "As gamers, we nowadays have to hold on tight to our wallets, as [un]surprisingly right after release, lots of tiny pieces of tempting content materialise with a steep price tag attached. Haven't we just paid a lot of cash for a brand new game?" So we feel it is wrong to charge for sword DLC etc for a AAA 60 USD release you just bought. Never it was said that a free 2 play (done right and that is our intention) is wrong.

- The decision to go free 2 play was quite simple because we want millions of people to enjoy the game - the PVP aspect is really important and to make it in to a successful card game we welcome ppl that will not pay a thing and still will hopefully enjoy the game. This would be extremely hard to do even if we would attache a modest price tag of 20 or 30 USD - there are millions of people that cannot pay even 10 USD and still would like to enjoy the game. And of course there are games that exploit the free 2 play players but we are not one of them. There will be no timers, no gems you can buy - play and unlock card packs or pay real money for card packs - regardless of how you want to do it you will be still able to play to yours heart content.

- You will be able to buy the single player campaign that will be self contained and with a great story - you get cards in the campaign and unlock new ones when you progress in the game - you don't have to do PVP at all to be able to enjoy Gwent. You pay once for the single player and enjoy a great story done by writers and quest designers from W3.

I hope this clarifies our stance on things.

DLC's being sold for $1.99 dollars (USD) that have one sword or voice packs being sold for $0.99 dollars (USD) is considered microtransactions.

Microtransactions don't have to just be purchasing virtual currency with real currency or whatever else.

When Marcin Iwinski says we video gamers have to hold on tight to our wallets because so many video games are sold with so many pieces of DLC's that have one sword or five maps in a map pack. I still take it that he doesn't like that business model.

I know there are tens of millions of people on this planet who cannot afford $10 dollars (USD) at all.

If I can purchase the singleplayer campaign then that's what I'm ok with. The multiplayer of GWENT: The WItcher card video game I will just ignore and never play.

 

[ShifuoftheCards]

Cannot wait for the story.. Your writers are gifted and I am sure this will be memorable, and help us tie more deeply into the cards we earn. Kudos!

Quote Originally Posted by Rafal_Jaki View Post
You pay once for the single player and enjoy a great story done by writers and quest designers from W3.

 

[chesshaha]

There is no decision on this yet

Please strongly consider allow both in-game and real world currency to unlock single player campaign, and I believe this model will generate more profit in the long run. If making the campaign only purchasable through real currency, then Gwent will lose lots of potential customers. Just look at Hearthstone and how well they did using this model.

 

[vegetaalex66]

Please strongly consider allow both in-game and real world currency to unlock single player campaign, and I believe this model will generate more profit in the long run. If making the campaign only purchasable through real currency, then Gwent will lose lots of potential customers. Just look at Hearthstone and how well they did using this model.

Gwent's campaign won't be even comparable with Hearthstone's in terms of effort and content though. I'd completely understand it, if they decide to only allow real money as payment.

 

[chesshaha]

Gwent's campaign won't be even comparable with Hearthstone's in terms of effort and content though. I'd completely understand it, if they decide to only allow real money as payment.

I'm not comparing contents, but the monetization model. As someone who will support their work with real money, I'm just looking out for the game's future and building a larger community.

 

[vegetaalex66]

I'm not comparing contents, but the monetization model.

That's what I meant. Since they're so different, I were not surprised if they won't use Hearthstone's payment model for Gwent's campaign.

 

[chesshaha]

That's what I meant. Since they're so different, I were not surprised if they won't use Hearthstone's payment model for Gwent's campaign.

I get your point, but just because Gwent provides better contents doesn't mean they can't adopt the same monetization model that was successful from another CCG.

 

[vegetaalex66]

I get your point, but just because Gwent provides better contents doesn't mean they can't adopt the same monetization model that was successful from another CCG.

I just said that I wouldn't be surprised, not that they can't.

 

[burza1982]

Oh dear, reading all of these comments and shaking my head.

You will get good game free to play with hundreds of nice cards, probably three or tour times more cards then in TW3 Wild Hunt game.
I'm really grateful at this point, CDRP will give me a chance to play this card game with my friends.

Microtransactions? I don't care if they have it. Maybe, even good they have it, why?...because if someone will want to support them, for work they did will spend some money. No one forces you to spend money, you still can have good fun with the game without spending money. I pretty sure that microtransactions in this particularly game will not have a serious effect on gameplay.

Paying for campaign?
hmmm...obviously. No one expect, they will start giving you everything for free just because this is CDRP. This is not a charity organization.
This is dozens of hours of story, new music being created, voice acting, writers, graphic and probably dozens of other job positions involve in the process of making this card game. And guess what....no one is working for free, people are the most expensive expenditure in companies.

I'm aware how some game developers are greedy and on every step they pushing you to spend money by tightly restricting access to most things.
That will not gonna happened in Gwent, You will see.

 

[vegetaalex66]

Oh dear, reading all of these comments and shaking my head.

Paying for campaign?
hmmm...obviously. No one expect, they will start giving you everything for free just because this is CDRP. This is not a charity organization.
This is dozens of hours of story, new music being created, voice acting, writers, graphic and probably dozens of other job positions involve in the process of making this card game. And guess what....no one is working for free, people are the most expensive expenditure in companies.

Yes, it's completely understandable why we'll have to pay for the campaign and I'm more than willing to support CDPR with my money. Until this point though, Gwent was advertised as F2P with microtransactions and with an extensive campaign, but there were no words about it requiring a payment yet. As I said, that's not a problem in any matter and of course we shouldn't expect to get everything for free, but until now there were no words about a price, so maybe it wasn't so obvious than how you think.

 

[Balloers100]

Oh dear, reading all of these comments and shaking my head.

You will get good game free to play with hundreds of nice cards, probably three or tour times more cards then in TW3 Wild Hunt game.
I'm really grateful at this point, CDRP will give me a chance to play this card game with my friends.

Microtransactions? I don't care if they have it. Maybe, even good they have it, why?...because if someone will want to support them, for work they did will spend some money. No one forces you to spend money, you still can have good fun with the game without spending money. I pretty sure that microtransactions in this particularly game will not have a serious effect on gameplay.

Paying for campaign?
hmmm...obviously. No one expect, they will start giving you everything for free just because this is CDRP. This is not a charity organization.
This is dozens of hours of story, new music being created, voice acting, writers, graphic and probably dozens of other job positions involve in the process of making this card game. And guess what....no one is working for free, people are the most expensive expenditure in companies.

I'm aware how some game developers are greedy and on every step they pushing you to spend money by tightly restricting access to most things.
That will not gonna happened in Gwent, You will see.

Some people like me don't like Free to Play (F2P) video games because of microtransactions and we don't like microtransactions in full retail priced video games either.

We don't like Pay to Win video games either as well.

We like to just pay a one time price for the video games and that's it.

 

[Pawel1995]

Yes, and I think it's ok to not get the final "prize" of everything now, when we didn't get even the first Beta version....

 

[vegetaalex66]

Some people like me don't like Free to Play (F2P) video games because of microtransactions

You're literally the first person I see who complains about such a fair f2p system like in Gwent. Maybe this article can convince you? http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/28/12...eekend-busy-volunteers-and-hundreds-of-emails It explains the pack payment further.

 

[MarkoKris]

Hello,

As far as F2P mode...I like that. Dota 2 is F2P, has a huge player base and it's an eSport game with international tournaments and 9 milion $ prize pools so Gwent u just go with the same model....I know u will do right, u guys always prove wrong to some people who doubt you...continue to do that but....
one thing concerns me and I hope RED would read this. Upfront sorry if someone already said something like this but I have to mention it. I read a bit of the topic and haven't found it.

I heard this thing about premium-cards, u can view them in 3D and they have a cool effect < its a cosmetic thing only for every card in the deck. Please do not make this premium cards effects only purchase able with real money. Please allow people who don't have money, just like in this topic one of the RED staff said that someone doesn't even have 10$ to buy it, that he can play it, but at it's full glory. Make so that you can earn this premium card looks just by playing the game and investing time and skill in it. But at the same time and this is most important, do not make it bloody so hard to get, that 1 premium card we wish, while other players who use money get all the prems the fastest way possible. What I mean by that is that some devs make stuff so hard to get as in a ridiculous amount of effort and time is needed but still advertise there game as in "you can get everything without paying a dime" < yeah, that's technically true but very mean and evil with what's actually behind the scenes. I would like a reasonable effort in time and skill for a premium cards to be a reward so every player can truly enjoy. One who don't have time make it a bit faster with money, others who have time, be rewarded properly.

The point is, I hope u don't make cool effects in whatever form, only available with spending money.

 

[grumpyrogue]

I dumped tons on $ on my Magic cards back in the day....I'm assuming it can't be any more than that.

 

[Thiasam]

Dear Gwent-Team,

There were always two things that kept me from digging into online-cardgames:

- The feeling that mostly the strength of metacards dictates the outcome of each match, leaving the choice of playing or keeping cards a minor factor, but just because it is the only one that depends on the player, it becomes the most important .

After playing a lot of Gwent in the Witcher 3 and also got to play it on Gamescom I got the feeling that your game will not have this problem for me, as mind games and bluffs seem to be playing a huge role in choosing a victor, leaving decks and cards only to specify ones strategy and playstyle.

- The problem of having either to invest a lot of time or money to get all available cards.

As you already made clear, Gwent will be a free to play game, so to gain profit out of it, we, the player, will probably get the possibility of Microtransactions. This brings me to my question: Will there be the possibility to unlock all cards for a set amount of money? The same principle was for example executed in Hi-rez's moba Smite, were you could unlock all playable gods for around 25€ by buying the „Ultimate God Pack“.
This possibility to basically turn Gwent into a full prize game, where I would have all cards from the beginning, out of a f2p one, where I would have to collect all cards over time would fix this problem for me, probably making it one of my favourite games.

Yours faithfully
Thiasam

 

[Devizz]

I have to say though, I find it funny that someone is complaining about something that isn't even implemented and defined yet. All we now is that it will be f2p which is not a bad thing, really. F2p works very well if done right.

 

[Pawel1995]

We know that it will be a F2P game, we know that we will be able to buy cardpacks for gold and money, but you will be able to choose 1 Herocard from 2, so it won't be like in HS that you end up with 5/5 cards that you already know.

We also know that there will be Singleplayer and you haven't to play it, in order to get good cards for the Multiplayer.

- The problem of having either to invest a lot of time or money to get all available cards.

That's exactly what several CDPR employees said, will not happen! They want to make it as fair as possible, so you don't need to spend 10+ hours per day or real money, to have a chance vs other players.

I will just say what I say too often on this forum: "Let's wait for the Beta" and for more information. I'm pretty sure that even the men at cdpr don't know yet, how much money one cardpack should cost (or gold)

 

[Balloers100]

I have to say though, I find it funny that someone is complaining about something that isn't even implemented and defined yet. All we now is that it will be f2p which is not a bad thing, really. F2p works very well if done right.

For me Free to Play (F2P) video games are just terrible.

Because.

1. They can let hackers play easily.

2. They have microtransactions it's the only way a video game development company can earn money from them.

3. I don't like Pay to Win (P2W) either.

Why not just sell GWENT: The Witcher card video game for $20 dollars (USD) or $30 dollars (USD) and keep releasing cards and card packs for free?

CD Projekt RED does a very good job releasing DLC's for free for their video games or AAA video games.

And history has proven and shown that if you release constant content for free for your video games the sales will keep on coming.

 

[Kylestien]

The thing about microtransactions is that if done right, it never needs to intrude on your game and can provide CD Projeckt Red with more money. All of the PROBLEMS with Nicrotransactions comes from greed: things like power creep or lack or funds turning into putting power in cards, or letting people buy specific cards for money. I think CD Projekt Red can do this right, and it's the only company i feel I can trust to do so.

If the system I've heard will be happening is right (I'm not sure 100% how it works: maybe someone can clarify) I think the oly main risk of it being P2W is the possibility of geting powerful crafting items from brought cards. We know you can pick one of the cards from a set of 3 and that will always be a certain rairty or higher. While good from that perspective, there is also the risk people might buy a lot of them, get a lot of epic cards them melt them donw for epic card parts. That's the only way I can see P2W happening under the system as I understand it.