Polish developer CD Projekt Red are truly one of the most respected game developers on the scene today, and today they have likely earned a lot more of that respect after announcing that their upcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will have 16 DLC releases, all of them free.
DLC are quickly earning the suspicion and outright ire of many gamers, with the suit-wearing business executives at Ubisoft, EA and Activision dictating that significant amounts of game content be released as either pre-order incentives or post-released DLC. Perhaps the most infamous of these was EA’s decision to make Javik , a crucial character in Mass Effect 3, a pre-order bonus, but more recently gamers were blindsided by Activision’s announcement of Destiny DLC strike missions which were a timed exclusive for the PlayStation 3 and 4.
Meanwhile, CD Projekt, known solely for their Witcher series, put out a blog post today explaining that, as gamers themselves, they feel the frustration of gamers at large when their beloved games force them to pay more and more for content:
As gamers, we nowadays have to hold on tight to our wallets, as surprisingly right after release, lots of tiny pieces of tempting content materialize with a steep price tag attached. Haven’t we just paid a lot of cash for a brand new game?
Setting themselves apart from other big name developers, CD Projekt then announced that, following the release of The Witcher 3, all who purchase the game before or after it is released will eventually receive 16 pieces of DLC which will be put out in the weeks afterwards. These all come in the form of costumes, beards, weapons, and additional quests. All of this for free.
The first four have already been made known: a Temerian Armor Set, a Beard and Hairstyle Set, an alternate costume for NPC Yennefer, and a quest called ‘Missing Miners.’
This isn’t the first time CD Projekt have made a gesture of goodwill towards its fans of this nature. Following the release of 2011’s The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on the PC, the studio began work on an Xbox 360 port that would include additional items and several additional hours worth of quests. This additional content was subsequently made available to PC users via a free upgrade to the “Enhanced Edition.”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be out for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 24, 2015.