CD Projekt Red thinks Gwent has "cracked" the way to make a free-to-play game feel fun both for paying and non-paying players. While it's still keeping the specifics of its monetization plans for the Witcher 3 spinoff under wraps, it did tell Eurogamer about one enticing change to the standard card game trappings: in Gwent, each booster pack will give you a choice of powerful cards
In most card games (both physical and virtual), the contents of a booster pack are random. You might get all-new cards, or you might get nothing but duplicates. That will also be the case for four out of five of the cards in a Gwent booster pack, but the fifth card - the guaranteed rare-or-better card - will actually give you three options. Pick whichever one you most want and the other two will be taken away, carried off to another dimension by the Wild Hunt or whatever.
"We have our own thoughts about card games in general, and we felt this innovation would reduce the frustration you sometimes get if you get all the cards you don't want to have," principal narrative designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz said. "This gives you at least some degree of control and you feel like you can pick what you like the best."
Your booster pack may even contain a premium version of a card, which has the same stats and abilities but features cool, 3D animated illustrations. CDPR also confirmed that Gwent will start out with four factions (the Northern Kingdoms, Scoia'tael, Skellige, and Monsters; the Nilfgaardian Empire will be added to the game later on. The Gwent closed beta is set to begin on Xbox One and PC in September, with PS4 support arriving later.
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