What a lovely bunch of lads and ladies they must be over at CD Projekt Red, developers of upcoming role-playing nudity game The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. When it comes to paid DLC, the company has decided to put customers first (who’d have thunk it?) – something that we see remarkably little of in the gaming industry in this day and age. Deciding not to put a price on a small piece of DLC like a new gun or character skin should be a given, but unfortunately that is not the case anymore. However, at least CD Projekt Red are doing something to fight the right cause as yesterday they publicly announced – amid all of the wonderful Witcher 3 gameplay they’ve been showing off – that they’re “making a statement” when it comes to being fair to gamers.
Marcin Iwiński, CEO of CD Projekt Red told IGN that there will be 16 post-launch DLC packs available for The Witcher 3, all for free, the reason being that “people just paid full price for our game” and “we owe them”. What did I say? Lovely, aren’t they. Iwiński went on to state that
“We, as gamers, would like to be treated this way, ‘Hey, give me free DLC.’ It doesn’t have to be something huge. And I’m saying we aren’t giving out huge stuff, we aren’t giving tens of hours of storyline here, we are giving small bits of pieces that don’t cost a lot. And I think people would feel better about our game, and, so, they will enjoy the adventure even more.”
The developers also told PlayStation Access in a recent interview that they would only add a price tag to DLC if it were some sort of major expansion i.e. a new story and set of quests.
In an industry where we’re so used to being lumbered with pre-order incentives and cheap game upgrades that are sold for cash, it is nice to see a developer coming out before the release of their game and stating that they understand their customers wants and needs. For this, The Witcher 3 should have you attention, not least because it’s shaping up to be a stellar game anyway.