CD Projekt Red may have put the finish touches on Geralt of Rivia’s long-running epic in 2016, but they aren’t done with The Witcher universe just yet. Gwent: The Witcher Card Game was announced in June of 2016, with the public beta going live in May this year. Gwent is, of course, the digital card game featured as a minigame and series of side quests in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Newly announced at Gamescom 2017 was the introduction of a single-player story campaign to Gwent.
In the official Gwent game, it has already been established that players can compete against each other as Geralt does in The Witcher, even across platforms. Players choose a faction (Northern Realms, Nilfgaard, Scoia’tael, Monsters, and Skellige) and play out battles through a deck of cards.
Gwent: Thronebreaker follows Meve, queen of two Northern Realms and seasoned war veteran. The campaign will see Meve enter the fray once again on a mission of revenge. Promisingly, Thronebreaker and The Witcher share developers; several of the people responsible for the acclaimed narrative development in The Witcher 3 are also members of the Thronebreaker team. Gameplay will include new quests and battles that allow Gwent players to build armies and at the same time further explore stories in The Witcher universe if they so choose, rather than straightforward PVP card matches. Thronebreaker offers new Gwent cards exclusive to the single-player campaign that players can afterward add to their multiplayer collections.
Gwent is free to play and the beta is available now for PC through GOG.com, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The final product, Gwent 1.0 – so named because CD Projekt Red plans to continuously update the game even after the beta ends – does not have an official release date, though it will happen once the game is “feature-rich, polished, and sufficiently tested,” according to Gwent‘s FAQ. Gwent: Thronebreaker is set to launch later this year.