CD Projekt RED’s co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwiński has explained why The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s DLC will be free.

In an interview with IGN, Iwiński stated that the reason for them releasing all 16 DLC packs for free was to make a statement against the “steeply priced” DLC packs.

When asked why CD Projekt is releasing the DLC packs for free, Iwiński responded:

 “Because people just paid full price for our game,”, “We owe them.”

“Yeah, we are making a statement. We, as gamers, would like to be treated this way, ‘Hey, give me free DLC.’ It doesn’t have to be something huge. And I’m saying we aren’t giving out huge stuff, we aren’t giving tens of hours of storyline here, we are giving small bits of pieces that don’t cost a lot. And I think people would feel better about our game, and, so, they will enjoy the adventure even more.”

Iwiński then went on to say that he hoped that these free DLC packs would decrease piracy and the amount of trade ins:

“And maybe the ones who thought about pirating would not pirate it. Maybe the ones who wanted to trade it back and get something else will keep it on the shelf. That’d be great, I would like this to happen and if not that’s fine as well. I hope they’ll have fun.”

The conversation then changed to publishers and how they wanted to change The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into a game with multiplayer, and why CD Projekt were against that idea:

“Initially, when we were talking to different publishing partners, they were coming over to our studio with focus tests saying, ‘Hey! RPG is the trend now. There has to be multiplayer, and multi-character selection, and there has to be a female character.’ And we said, ‘No, no, it’s about Geralt. We have the books, we have the lore. It’s true, it works, it’s consistent.'”

“So we’re not talking to these guys anymore, But we’ve always had a strong vision of what we want to achieve and even having that, it’s not easy. And overcomplicating it and adding something on the side, just because it looks better on the box, or maybe it works better in the press or promotion, [multiplayer] was never our style. And its truly a single-player game. And I think that’s what people appreciate, nothing artificially stuck on the side just to make it look better. It’s the story of Geralt, the professional monster hunter, and that’s it.”

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt releases worldwide on May 19th for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One.

My Opinion:

CD Projekt has a reputation for being a good developer and this just enhances this reputation, and rightly so. This is not only a good move but Iwiński is more than a hundred percent correct when he says that gamers deserve better. We, as gamers, do deserve better. It is ridiculous that so many developers hold data on a disc and then force you to pay extra for that content (Destiny is a prime example of that). Another example, is when a developer announces paid DLC for a game that is still far away from going gold; that really frustrates me!

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Steven Shearer is an Associate Writer for MONG. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.