CDPR on Keeping The Witcher 3 DLCs Prices Low: “Safe to Say We Hit the Mark” on Real Value for Money”
Back in 2015, CD Projekt RED released the first expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt titled Hearts of Stone, which was soon followed by Blood and Wine a year later.
It wasn’t your bite-sized DLC either, as each expansion easily offered roughly 30+ hours of content for players to experience, and all at a relatively low price tag.
Ten years later, and The Witcher 3 is getting another hefty expansion with Songs of the Past set to be released next year. With that in mind and the release of The Witcher 3 Remastered upgrade, we thought it would be a good idea to hit up CD Projekt RED to ask about The Witcher 3.
The Witcher 3 Expansions Were Priced Low for Gamers, Says CDPR 
In an exclusive interview with MP1st, Marcin Momot, Global Community and Social Media Director for CD Projekt RED, answered some of our questions about The Witcher franchise, and we asked about the pricing structure of the expansions and how they decided on it.
MP1st: You know, looking back at The Witcher 3, it was pretty insane that the team released an expansion pass for $20. We all know what that gets you today, heck, even back then it didn’t get you much, and yet there you guys were releasing two expansions that could easily span over 30 hours of gameplay. What was the reasoning behind that pricing, and what drove the team to put so much worth into a price tag that could have easily been much more?
Momot answered, “For this one, I’ll have to go way back! When we launched The Witcher 3, it was our first open-world game and our first real attempt at putting our storytelling philosophy to the test in such a wide and free setting. It was our most ambitious game at the time, by far, and I think the expansion pass (which I believe was actually $24.99!) was also part of that ambition.”
Continuing, Momot said that the DLCs were about giving the players real value for money, adding, “Most importantly though, it was all about the players. For those who supported us by buying the expansion pass for The Witcher 3, it really felt like they were putting their trust in us to expand the game in a meaningful way. I think it was a way to thank them for doing so, and being there to take that journey with us. Above all, we wanted to provide quality at a good value. When we were finishing development on The Witcher 3 and thinking about expansions, we always said that we wanted to create something that represented a real value for money. I think it’s safe to say we hit the mark.”
Mission accomplished, CDPR! Both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are still considered by many to be the gold standard when it comes to single-player story expansions.
The studio giving back to players didn’t end there either, as when CD Projekt RED announced The Witcher 3 Remastered upgrade at Gamescom this year, some gamers were surprised that the developers released this significant upgrade as a free download rather than something they can profit from.
Not only that, but the developers even upgraded all base game owners to the Complete Edition of the action-RPG, which meant that everyone now had free access to the Blood and Wine, Hearts of Stone expansions.
Will we see the same low price for Songs of the Past? Your guess is as good as mine. Let’s hope this new expansion packs as much content as the previous two DLCs, even if it is releasing more than a decade later.
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