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[Jhn]

Wow, the timing of this could literally not be worse.
Everyone is already up in arms after the Tomb Raider PR disaster, so regardless if this in itself deserves some public outcry, it's now certain to receive it, if nothing else from pure splash damage from their colleges at Crystal Dynamics. That said, I don't think they deserve the same level of scorn as MS and SE has received for this. Sure, it's still money hatting in a sense, but they are at least honest about the nature of it.

What honestly surprises me though is that I genuinely would never have thought CDPR would do something like this. They have been so meticulous in building a reputation of consumer friendliness during the last several years, and now they have actively thrown a significant chunk of that built up goodwill away. While they certainly never outright promised not to include "physical exclusives", doing so absolutely goes against the image they have built for themselves when releasing statements like "No exclusive DLC" and "No retailer-locked content".

They have technically not broken any promises, but they certainly have in spirit.

 

[XenoRaven]

I honestly don't have a problem with this, I don't buy collectors editions normally either way.

However... If I was a PC Witcher fan, I would be disappointed that its original fan base was not the one to get the "more special" special edition.

I also get annoyed at this PR dressing of the issue. Just be honest and cut the shit already, this is the same sort of shit MS does that keeps pissing people off.

"Listen we would love to provide everyone the same content and are making sure game wise it is the same. We also need to maximize profits to keep making games, so MS offered us some extra cash to do this and we took it."

Wait is the quote what you wish they would have said? Because that's basically what they said.

 

[m@cross]

Wait is the quote what you wish they would have said? Because that's basically what they said.

Well something more like that; Their response, while similar, still tries to sugar coat the fact that this is just a decision about making more money. Yes they sort of say that, but instead of dancing around it with minced terms, just be honest and say it. We want to make more money, this gets us more money, period.

 

[Rembrandt]

Well something more like that; Their response, while similar, still tries to sugar coat the fact that this is just a decision about making more money. Yes they sort of say that, but instead of dancing around it with minced terms, just be honest and say it. We want to make more money, this gets us more money, period.

What company says that? Be fucking real. It's a partnership, everybody knows what a partnership is.

 

[xXDGFXx]

Oh man just imagine of Bloodborne had exclusive DLC for Xbone announced. Wow there would be an ass storm in here.

What are you even talking about...?

 

[Card Boy]

I ain't even mad. I got the PC version for like $20.

 

[Luminaire]

It's mostly a non-issue. If this was revealed a week ago, no one would have a problem with this. It's the timing of the announcement after the whole Tomb Raider drama (which I'm one of the people fairly upset by it) that causes it to be given more attention and ire than it really deserves. Something like this is perfectly fine to me.

 

[Shin-Ra]

Wow, the timing of this could literally not be worse.
Everyone is already up in arms after the Tomb Raider PR disaster, so regardless if this in itself deserves some public outcry, it's now certain to receive it, if nothing else from pure splash damage from their colleges at Crystal Dynamics. That said, I don't think they deserve the same level of scorn as MS and SE has received for this. Sure, it's still money hatting in a sense, but they are at least honest about the nature of it.

What honestly surprises me though is that I genuinely would never have thought CDPR would do something like this. They have been so meticulous in building a reputation of consumer friendliness during the last several years, and now they have actively thrown a significant chuck of that built up goodwill away. While they certainly never outright promised not to include "physical exclusives", doing so absolutely goes against the image they have built for themselves when releasing statements like "No exclusive DLC" and "No retailer-locked content".

They have technically not broken any promises, but they certainly have in spirit.

They didn't have a problem presenting their game on a platform that at the time had some extremely anti-consumer DRM.

 

[maxiell]

Well something more like that; Their response, while similar, still tries to sugar coat the fact that this is just a decision about making more money. Yes they sort of say that, but instead of dancing around it with minced terms, just be honest and say it. We want to make more money, this gets us more money, period.

I'm sure that will pay for Cyberpunk 2077 in its entirety. I hope they sell tons of copies of W3 so they can make that game as good as it can be.

Is there such thing as a timed cloth map?

 

[CTLance]

I honestly don't care about the cards or map. I've preordered the game over at gog, so I won't be getting any physical goodies anyway.

Still, to have CDPR of all devs go down this road is disappointing. For The Witcher no less, a considerably PC-centric franchise. It's basically going against their fanbase - again, fuck the cards, this is about the gesture.

Plus, that timing (RoTR). Oh lordy.

I'm only mildly annoyed with MS. SquEnix has been a lost cause since forever, so no surprise there - but I hold CDPR to a higher standard. Consider my Jimmies to be rustled on this issue.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

Well MS already annoyed some PC/PS owners with Tomb Raider so why not do it again, with exclusive CE content on Witcher 3
(especially PC Witcher fans as it is a PC centric series, massively less so PS4)

Also I do have to question whether CD Projekt agreed to this, it doesn't seem like them, a BN decision then?

In all seriousness, I think that a comment as blatantly system-war-fire-fuelish as this one shouldn't be part of the OP of a thread. You're practically begging forum goers to turn this thread into a console/system war battlefield, not that it wouldn't have likely happened anyway mind you.

The bottom line is both MS and Sony will do whatever they can to secure exclusive perks that make multiplatform titles seem more attractive on their platform. Sony got the Destiny Alpha, a longer Destiny Beta, and the exclusive Destiny bundle. That's arguably the single biggest AAA 3rd party multiplatform coming out anytime soon, and to secure exclusive perks for their platform was seen by many as "a way to shove it in the face of MS fanboys", when in actuality it was nothing more than a prudent business decision and a way to push consoles.

MS is doing the same thing with Tomb Raider and Witcher 3. To off-handedly write it off as 'why not annoy PC/PS players' is a trollish statement to make at best. It is business, and is the nature of consoles when it comes to big 3rd party AAA multiplat releases.

 

[I Want Your Cat]

Man lately this place just likes to complain about everything.

 

[RexNovis]

Oh man just imagine of Bloodborne had exclusive DLC for Xbone announced. Wow there would be an ass storm in here.

What?? Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive due to being codeveloped with SCE Japan so short of MS buying Sony the XB1 will never get Bloodborne.

This is actually hilarious

Yep I thought so too

 

[Zetta]

I'm alright with this just a little shocked that CD Project were behind it. I guess I held them at a higher standard but not so much now. Still though I've grown so accustomed to these exclusivities that in the end it won't hurt my purchase of this game.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

I'm alright with this just a little shocked that CD Project were behind it. I guess I held them at a higher standard but not so much now. Still though I've grown so accustomed to these exclusivities that in the end it won't hurt my purchase of this game.

They probably made the decision in the context of most PC players going more and more digital. While physical items (esp cloth maps) are traditionally a big thing with PC RPGs, that trend is fading with the rise of Steam. So they probably thought (though perhaps mistakenly) that the PC players wouldn't really care about physical items as much these days.

Of course the demo for Collector's Editions is a different beast. I'm sure they weighed that in their decision, but at the end of the day business is business. As long as they didn't break any promises (which they didn't), I think what they're doing here is perfectly acceptable.

.| Speaking of overreacting...
.|
V

 

[Vestal]

We are really complaining about a deck of fucking cards and a cloth map??

Drowning in a glass of water folks. Blowing shit completely out of fucking proportion. A lot of you really need to get a grip ffs.

CDPR has an impeccable reputation and will continue to do so. Only major developer who has the balls to truly sell their game DRM free and update it extensively after release.

 

[matrixman92]

I ain't even mad. I got the PC version for like $20.

Was there a deal or something?

 

[Stahsky]

We are really complaining about a deck of fucking cards and a cloth map??

Drowning in a glass of water folks. Blowing shit completely out of fucking proportion. A lot of you really need to get a grip ffs.

CDPR has an impeccable reputation and will continue to do so. Only major developer who has the balls to truly sell their game DRM free and update it extensively after release.

I've been collecting all things Witcher for a while now, and I find it a bummer that I can't get these couple of things. I own 2 copies of Witcher 1, and 3 of Witcher 2. I would at least like the chance to pick up these in the distant future.

Why is it such a bad thing for fans to be bummed out that they are missing a few things?

 

[Rembrandt]

I've been collecting all things Witcher for a while now, and I find it a bummer that I can't get these couple of things. I own 2 copies of Witcher 1, and 3 of Witcher 2. I would at least like the chance to pick up these in the distant future.

Why is it such a bad thing for fans to be bummed out that they are missing a few things?

Buy them on eBay, problem solved.

 

[Stahsky]

Buy them on eBay, problem solved.

gee why didnt i think of that

 

[FlyStarJay]

well so cdr are just like any other game company out there then? Bound to happen sooner or later

 

[Lemstar]

Was there a deal or something?

Eastern European price differences. Check the b/s/t thread for reputable sellers.

 

[Zoned]

Eastern European price differences. Check the b/s/t thread for reputable sellers.

Steam copy or GOG?

 

[Valnen]

Eastern European price differences. Check the b/s/t thread for reputable sellers.

Isn't that against the Steam ToS?

 

[Kieli]

I don't give a rat's fuck what CDProjeckt Red does with physical pre-order stuff.

They're a quadruple-A dev in my books. Great games. Amazing post-release support. FREE, substantive DLC. GoG. No DRM.

If you're complaining about a cloth map and 2 cards, you need to re-evaluate your hobby.

 

[Nutter]

No matter who is doing it, exclusive content for the sake of keeping it out of others hands is bullshit.

With that said, some of the arguements people make are down right shit. Did the 360 owners complain as much as PS4 owners, who bitch enough to get developer comments now?

Add a card to an Xbox SKU, and its as if the developer has committed a crime, but develop exclusive content at launch and have exclusive content in DLC that gets locked to others for a year, and that is ok?

 

[d9b]

My god, a cloth map and two decks of cards.

That's how it always starts, with small things. This is very unlike CDProjekt, very disappointing.

 

[Rembrandt]

gee why didnt i think of that

Good question, tbh.

 

[ProcHoliday]

I'm kind of surprised at the backlash due to this, it's a deck of cards and a map. Like, the map would be cool but it's not a deal-breaker in any way whatsoever. No matter what platform I play on (PC) I'm going to get the most important thing...that being the game. Seems a little ridiculous to lose your head over some cardboard and a piece of cloth.

 

[Denton]

It's not really that popular, though. The series (as a whole) sold 6 million until last October. That counting The Witcher 1 for PC and Mac and The Witcher 2 for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox 360. 3 months after the release, only 450k copies were sold on Xbox 360. We should remember that it's a popular series between us, people who care enough to keep looking at news and forums. But not that much for casual players, who are really the majority.

Probably many of you are unhappy with this because you wanted the map or the mini-game. Or both. Well, it's fair to want that, even if I really don't think they're being anti-consumer, dishonest or broke promises. Hopefully whoever wants them can find a way to buy eventually, but I'm glad CD Projekt is still keeping its principles.

I think Witcher 3 has broken into the mainstream pretty well. It did win every single most anticipated poll I have seen, not just on neogaf but on mainstream sites like gametrailers, ign or eurogamer etc. And CDP's marketing has been, up until this one fuck-up, flawless. As I said before, I think this game will sell like hot cakes, and this deal might do more harm than good.

Keep It up Microsoft, it's good to see grown men crying and whining about what's coming or not coming to their platform of preference.

So much condescention in a single nasty drive by post, congrats. This thread has unusually high concentration of those.

 

[BlackBuzzard]

Wow saying you are above it all. Then later announce Xbone CE comes with extra goodies. Bunch of hypocrites.

 

[Hypron]

So much condescention in a single nasty drive by post, congrats. This thread has unusually high concentration of those.

Yeah. Most of the posts are along the lines of "it's a bit disappointing". You probably have more post complaining about "whiners" than actual whiners.

 

[Mutanthands]

well so cdr are just like any other game company out there then? Bound to happen sooner or later

Yes, they are like any other game company. They need to make money to keep making games. Having a manufacturer foot the bill for advertising leaves you with more money to pay the people that work for you to make the games you like playing.

It's that simple. It's business. All of it. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, all the publishers. They aren't you friends or your buddies. They need to make money to pay their people and keep the shareholders/owners happy.

The game will have the same content for all the systems. That was the promise, and they're keeping it. The rest of it puts some extra money in the jar for game development. I see no problem.

 

[RooMHM]

Good PR answer at least. PC should always be put forward though...

 

[plasmawave]

Exclusive limited edition seems like the dumbest idea ever.

 

[ShogunDarius]

In all seriousness, I think that a comment as blatantly system-war-fire-fuelish as this one shouldn't be part of the OP of a thread. You're practically begging forum goers to turn this thread into a console/system war battlefield, not that it wouldn't have likely happened anyway mind you.

The bottom line is both MS and Sony will do whatever they can to secure exclusive perks that make multiplatform titles seem more attractive on their platform. Sony got the Destiny Alpha, a longer Destiny Beta, and the exclusive Destiny bundle. That's arguably the single biggest AAA 3rd party multiplatform coming out anytime soon, and to secure exclusive perks for their platform was seen by many as "a way to shove it in the face of MS fanboys", when in actuality it was nothing more than a prudent business decision and a way to push consoles.

MS is doing the same thing with Tomb Raider and Witcher 3. To off-handedly write it off as 'why not annoy PC/PS players' is a trollish statement to make at best. It is business, and is the nature of consoles when it comes to big 3rd party AAA multiplat releases.

Yeah your right, as a business I get why ms did the tr deal, it's just I haven't actually gained anything from that deal, and it didn't help that this was announced on the heels of that. Obviously this is in no way shape or form anywhere near as bad as that exclusivity deal, if ms paid for this themselves then Fair play to them, though windows gamers are ms gamers too, though ms would want more sales on xbox one obviously.

My personal concern is with cd projekt, they are the ones who built up the best reputation in the games industry with no drm, free updates, and parity etc. While I understand that this seems to be part of a contractual obligation it does seem to go against the very image they like to portray. I'm not saying I won't get the witcher 3, I still will but I can't say this hasn't given their image a knock.

 

[matrixman92]

Steam copy or GOG?

looks like steam copies. There is a guy selling them for 18 right now. I am waiting to hear back from him

 

[TheYanger]

No matter who is doing it, exclusive content for the sake of keeping it out of others hands is bullshit.

With that said, some of the arguements people make are down right shit. Did the 360 owners complain as much as PS4 owners, who bitch enough to get developer comments now?

Add a card to an Xbox SKU, and its as if the developer has committed a crime, but develop exclusive content at launch and have exclusive content in DLC that gets locked to others for a year, and that is ok?

As someone that owns neither console, the ridiculous whining has always existed, but the entitlement complexes and frequency of it are definitely feeling like an all time high right now. I don't envy the mods, it's only getting worse for the moment.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

it's just I haven't actually gained anything from that deal

If I'm understanding you correctly then you're saying you're only upset about this deal because you want Witcher 3 and you weren't upset about the TR one because you don't want TR?

I'm not sure if that's what you meant to say, but even if I'm misunderstanding it does bring up the point I'm trying to make. People are only getting pissy when they're on the wrong end of these deals. Witcher 3 may turn out to be a fantastic RPG, but I doubt it will sell like Destiny. Some of the same people that were perfectly fine with Sony's deal with Bungie are now up in arms about MS's deal for Witcher 3, and let's be frank, in-game content (exclusive Destiny mission, etc) is a lot more important to most gamers than some cards or a map. Those things only matter to the super-meticulous collectors.

To be fair, there were plenty of people that have been just peachy with MS's money hats to secure timed-exclusive access to content (CoD DLCs for instance),then suddenly up in arms about Sony doing the same sort of deal with Bungie. MS certainly does it more often than Sony does, although that might be changing this gen as Sony seems to be stepping up their game a lot. But my point is that I'm fine with either one of them doing it. I'd much rather miss out on physical trinkets and doo dads that will inevitably get lost/trashed/sold at a garage sale.

I'm even fine with fully exclusive games/franchises, because those are what differentiate the consoles from one another (other than the obligatory P's and frames, keep doin' what you do, Digital Foundry). At the end of the day, if you can't afford every system, you pick which one has the *most* exclusive games that you care about, and don't sweat the rest. Certainly don't scream at devs/pubs for taking perfectly good $$$ in exchange for exclusive content.

 

[DeadlyVirus]

I'm kind of surprised at the backlash due to this, it's a deck of cards and a map. Like, the map would be cool but it's not a deal-breaker in any way whatsoever. No matter what platform I play on (PC) I'm going to get the most important thing...that being the game. Seems a little ridiculous to lose your head over some cardboard and a piece of cloth.

Yet you pay the same a get less

 

[Denton]

Man lately this place just likes to complain about everything.

Show me this "everything" that you mean. What I see is people complaining about shitty things that deserve to be complained about, because they are shitty.

Yeah. Most of the posts are along the lines of "it's a bit disappointing". You probably have more post complaining about "whiners" than actual whiners.

And another one.

 

[Lemstar]

looks like steam copies. There is a guy selling them for 18 right now. I am waiting to hear back from him

There's a guy selling GOG gifts, too.

Isn't that against the Steam ToS?

Formally, yes, but no one really cares (c.f. JaseC's posts on the topic).

 

[TheYanger]

Yet you pay the same a get less

The issue is that something relatively unimportant like this gets a bunch of crying over it, while something like Destiny exclusive content gets ABOUT the same outcry. Then you look at the whole Tomb Raider debacle and it's mind blowing.

What it comes down to is, the CEs on every other platform have not been altered from what people already preordered them at, if you didn't think it was a solid value you wouldn't have ever gone for it anyway. The XBone version of the CE is now getting like, a couple of bucks worth of exclusive extra stuff on top of it.

 

[Steel]

.... I can't believe someone thought it would be a good idea to pay to make something like this exclusive. Absolute waste of effort.

Good for the developers though. They get better profit margins on everyone else's collector's editions and a pile of cash from MS, all while not doing anything too controversial.

 

[ShogunDarius]

If I'm understanding you correctly then you're saying you're only upset about this deal because you want Witcher 3 and you weren't upset about the TR one because you don't want TR?

I'm not sure if that's what you meant to say, but even if I'm misunderstanding it does bring up the point I'm trying to make. People are only getting pissy when they're on the wrong end of these deals. Witcher 3 may turn out to be a fantastic RPG, but I doubt it will sell like Destiny. Some of the same people that were perfectly fine with Sony's deal with Bungie are now up in arms about MS's deal for Witcher 3, and let's be frank, in-game content (exclusive Destiny mission, etc) is a lot more important to most gamers than some cards or a map. Those things only matter to the super-meticulous collectors.

To be fair, there were plenty of people that have been just peachy with MS's money hats to secure timed-exclusive access to content (CoD DLCs for instance),then suddenly up in arms about Sony doing the same sort of deal with Bungie. MS certainly does it more often than Sony does, although that might be changing this gen as Sony seems to be stepping up their game a lot. But my point is that I'm fine with either one of them doing it. I'd much rather miss out on physical trinkets and doo dads that will inevitably get lost/trashed/sold at a garage sale.

I'm even fine with fully exclusive games/franchises, because those are what differentiate the consoles from one another (other than the obligatory P's and frames, keep doin' what you do, Digital Foundry). At the end of the day, if you can't afford every system, you pick which one has the *most* exclusive games that you care about, and don't sweat the rest. Certainly don't scream at devs/pubs for taking perfectly good $$$ in exchange for exclusive content.

I meant the tomb raider deal, I have an xbox one so all I'm getting is a game I'm already getting rather than that money being used to revive an old IP like viva pinata or new IP. As for this deal I don't begrudge ms for wanting to give more to xbox one owners more content though I think it would be nice if applied to all xbox one versions not just the CE,that may have mitatgated this outrage somewhat if they had, however their timing of announcing this deal could have been done better. Personally I'm getting the CE on PC, I have 1 and 2 on there.

 

[AlexBasch]

So they practically said "we're not going to invest in a PC CE because very few people will buy it and go for the GoG/digital PC version"?

Sounds fair.

 

[gcubed]

The issue is that something relatively unimportant like this gets a bunch of crying over it, while something like Destiny exclusive content gets ABOUT the same outcry. Then you look at the whole Tomb Raider debacle and it's mind blowing.

What it comes down to is, the CEs on every other platform have not been altered from what people already preordered them at, if you didn't think it was a solid value you wouldn't have ever gone for it anyway. The XBone version of the CE is now getting like, a couple of bucks worth of exclusive extra stuff on top of it.

I think this would have gotten much less attention and a general meh attitude (I guess barring huge PC fans of the series) if it wasn't right on the heels of tomb raider. With the amount of vitriol pointed at ms right now, it was a terrible time to announce this, no matter how mundane it really is

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

bleh...

I collect collectors editions...I have over 40 different ones. I don't really care about in game stuff when buying them, they are all about the items for my mancave/game room displays.

This is even one of the coolest sounding CE items too, a deck of cards used to play a completely custom game taken straight from the minigame. I wouldve killed for something like this with FF8...

So yea, for someone like me this is pretty devastating. Last time something like this happened was when tomb raider came out for PC digital only. I wanted that CE so bad for the Lara figure. When that happened I just waited and bought the game on a steam sale instead, I guess I'll do the same here.

 

[TheYanger]

I think this would have gotten much less attention and a general meh attitude (I guess barring huge PC fans of the series) if it wasn't right on the heels of tomb raider. With the amount of vitriol pointed at ms right now, it was a terrible time to announce this, no matter how mundane it really is

Oh absolutely, but even the Tomb Raider nonsense has gone way overboard. People have a right to dislike the practices, but this shit has been going on since before most of the people here were even born, the level of vitriol directed towards microsoft is pathetically hypocritical and completely over the top. MS is no saint, but neither is any other video game hardware company.

 

[yatesl]

Isn't that against the Steam ToS?

It'd be against the ToS to use a VPN and buy them from the Russian store, then switch back. It's not against the ToS to trade items for games - otherwise they wouldn't let you trade game gifts in the first place.

On topic, I don't see this as a big issue, although maybe that's because my £130 Master Chief helmet and Halo Reach statues days are behind me. I'd be annoyed if it was in game content - but even then, it'd be a mission, or a throwaway weapon.


Have people considered buying the Xbox One CE, selling the game, then buying the PC version? Considering the usual console vs price difference, I'd imagine it'd work out the same.