The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is nearing release after a bevy of delays, but it’s looking absolutely fantastic. And what’s better than the hundreds of hours we’re going to sink our teeth into? Even more hours of Geralt’s journey in finding The Wild Hunt once and for all. CD Projekt RED estimates the two expansions, ‘Hearts of Stone’ and ‘Blood and Wine,’ to come in at a total of 30 hours. Of course, those are dev estimates, so take that for what you will.
While the announcement of the DLC does come at a strange time, especially when the idea of DLC is quite middling, the devs are being quite sincere in their intent. And of all the devs, it’s far easier to trust CD Projekt RED considering they always release a large amount of free DLC to the masses and tend to be the most transparent devs in the industry in terms of their messaging. Both expansions will be available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. ‘Hearts of Stone’ will release in October, while ‘Blood and Wine’ will be released Q1 of 2016. Check out the press release below for more details on, ‘Hearts of Stone’ and ‘Blood and Wine. Also, check out the first 15-minutes of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt courtesy of Ign.
CD Projekt RED Press Release
“With the development of Wild Hunt coming to an end, the team has embarked upon the creation of two new really big adventures set in The Witcher universe,†says Marcin IwiÅ„ski, CD PROJEKT RED co-founder. “We remember the time when add-on disks truly expanded games by delivering meaningful content. As gamers, we’d like to bring that back. We’ve said in the past that if we ever decide to release paid content, it will be vast in size and represent real value for the money. Both our expansions offer more hours of gameplay than quite a few standalone games out there.â€
Hearts of Stone will take Geralt on an all-new, 10-hour-plus adventure into the wilds of No Man’s Land and the nooks and alleys of Oxenfurt, where he’ll try to complete a contract from the mysterious Man of Glass. Caught in a thick tangle of deceit, Geralt will need all his cunning and strength to solve the mystery and emerge unscathed.
Blood and Wine, a 20-hour-plus tale that will introduce the all-new in-game region of Toussaint, will take Geralt to a land untainted by war, where an atmosphere of carefree indulgence and knightly ritual masks an ancient, bloody secret.
“While we’re offering the Expansion Pass now, we want to make one thing clear: don’t buy it if you have any doubts. Wait for reviews or play The Witcher and see if you like it first. As always, it’s your call,†Iwiński concludes.
The upcoming expansions will offer gamers new adventures, gear and foes and will feature characters both new and dearly missed — all crafted with maximum attention to detail and quality by the joint forces of CD PROJEKT RED’s Warsaw and Cracow studios.
Hearts of Stone will premiere in October, while Blood and Wine is slated for release in the first quarter of 2016.
Both expansions will be available on all three platforms: Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4.