Immediately is a tragic day for card sharks who get pleasure from Gwent: The Witcher Card Recreation. The builders have introduced there will likely be no extra new playing cards added to the cell card recreation in 2024, nor will there be on-line tournaments. Updates for the sport will turn out to be extra insular as builders are shuffled onto different tasks.
Don’t have any concern: Gwent isn’t going away simply but. There are nonetheless 72 playing cards deliberate for launch subsequent 12 months. After that, the sport will shift to a “seasonal” mannequin that rewards constructing decks in several methods. The builders additionally plan to permit the neighborhood to vote on balancing modifications. I’ve by no means been a giant believer in design by committee, however I assume it doesn’t actually matter for a sunsetting recreation that isn’t receiving any new expansions. Don’t fear—the devs gained’t enable the neighborhood to implement something too wild, and common month-to-month balancing will nonetheless happen for 2023.
CDPR launched a Gwent roguelike this 12 months, which is marketed on Steam as a standalone “growth” to the bottom card recreation. Whereas the idea of Gwent: Rogue Mage sounded neat, it had a combined reception. Some individuals didn’t wish to go first in each match. Others thought that the sport was too simplified. Achievement hunters hated the RNG nature of the randomized occasions. However not less than Rogue Mage is a single-player recreation. A dwell service like the bottom Gwent recreation requires fixed employees, and CDPR has tons of tasks on the horizon.
The subsequent-gen improve for Witcher 3 is coming later this month, and the following Witcher recreation is already being developed in Unreal Engine 5. The builders are additionally remaking the very first title within the collection to really feel extra like an open world recreation. So if you happen to benefit from the real-time fight and the general worldbuilding of the Witcher collection, perhaps it’s a great factor that the cardboard recreation is winding down.
And it’s not like Gwent was even one of the simplest ways to play the cardboard recreation—the actual OG will all the time be the model in Witcher 3.