But it won’t
CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in May, but it didn’t stop offering content there. Over the course of three months, the developer continually put out free add-ons — 16 in all. That’s a trend that it’d like to see become commonplace.
In a statement to the press, Marcin Iwiński, co-founder and CEO of CD Projekt Red, said thanked fans for their support of the game and all of its DLC. He continued “I would really like to see such initiatives (free post-launch add-ons) become an industry standard rather than an exception to the general rule, and I hope that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has set a good example.”
However, the Polish developer doesn’t necessarily intend to take that approach with all add-ons. In the coming months, two Witcher 3 expansions are planned that will be for purchase. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are more sizable than the 16 pieces of free content, as they’re said to add around 30 hours of gameplay.
Of course, this is the type of revolution that you can advocate for when you’re both the developer and the publisher. Meanwhile, it was just a year ago that we reported EA was aiming to make an extra billion dollars from DLC and Ultimate Team initiatives. As long as margins are that great, no big publisher is ever going to hope free DLC becomes an industry standard.
