Thank You CDProjekt Red

I already wrote about how The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a miracle thanks to having an amazing story and characters in a world filled with Dragon Age: Inquisitions, but the Witcher 3 is a miracle for a different reason.

I want you to read something:

Since it’s been all hands on deck working to finish and release this patch on time, we won’t be publishing a free DLC this week (don’t worry – free content comes back next week). We hope you understand our decision. We’ve gathered so much feedback from you over the past couple of weeks and we want to implement as much of it as possible. The full change list for the patch 1.07 will be coming later this week. Stay tuned for info about the release of the update itself. – Latest Witcher 3 Update

Did you understand that? Go ahead and read it again, because it took me three, four times to figure out what was happening.

They’re apologizing. 

And they’re not apologizing because their game literally doesn’t work. It’s also a not a “sorry, not sorry” for wanting their customers to pay twice for the same game or an attempt to justify predatory DLC practices. Or trying to explain how they can’t add female characters because they’re too hard.  Or any of the other billions of other awful, despicable things that game companies usually stumble over themselves trying to explain, justify and apologize for.

CD Projekt Red is apologizing for spending so much time on patching their game (again, a rare occurrence in the current market)  that they didn’t release another free piece of DLC this week. Of all the strange things that I’ve seen from CDProjekt Red, this is by far the strangest.

Why, you ask? Well because the game industry has largely become as greedy and corrupt as pretty much every other major industry in the world: they provide the least amount of content possible for the maximum amount of cash. In recent years even having the game working on its release date seems like it’s asking too much with both Arkham Knight’s PC version and Assassin’s Creed Unity both being barely functional upon release. That’s just in the last year too, go back five years and you’ll find a slew of games that were all released in a broken state.

And in this environment, where they could have charged for all of this DLC and none of us would have blinked an eye, they not only release it all for free but apologize when they’re late in releasing it.

You know how much any other game company would charge for the Temerian Armor Set alone? Of course you know how much, you see it all the time:

Oblivion: Horse Armor – $1.99

Fable 3: Industrial Knight Outfit – $2.99

DLC Quests:

Skyrim: Hearthfire – 4.99

Fable 3: Understone Quest Pack – $4.99 Alternate Hairstyles and Skins for characters?

Alternate character skins:

Borderlands 2: Commando Pack – $0.99

Shadow of Mordor: Dark Ranger – $1.35

So if we use every other game company’s DLC chicanery to price the value of Witcher 3’s DLC so far?

Temerian Armor Set – $3.00

Nilfgaardian Armor Set – $3.00

Skellige Armor Set – $3.00

Three Crossbow Set – $1.00

Beard and Hairstyle Set – $1.00

Alternate Look for Triss  – $1.00

Alternate Look for Yennefer  – $1.00

Quest: Where The Cat and Wolf Play – $5.00

Quest: Missing Miners – $5.00

Quest: Fool’s Gold – $5.00

Ballad’s Heroes: Neutral Gwent Card Set – $1.00 

Total Value: $29.00 

That’s before tax as well. And while I’m not naming names, if this was a certain game company, those numbers would be easily be double or triple.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is… Thank you CDProjekt for being a great company that values its customers, rather than viewing us as giant humanoid wallets to be picked clean. Thank you for not only providing me an amazing story to experience, but also setting an example that other game companies should aspire to.

Now, back to playing Witcher 3.