Gwent's single player campaign delayed until 2018

The single-player story campaign for Gwent, Thronebreaker, has been pushed back, CD Projekt Red announced yesterday. The studio is now aiming for 2018. The good news is that the scope of the campaign is being expanded, and the "tempo" of multiplayer updates is also being increased.

"Expect content additions," say the developers, "like cards, challenges, vanity items, but also game patches, and balance tweaks to be published more frequently."

I wouldn’t normally be all that enthused about a CCG campaign -- though Blizzard has proved there’s a market for them with Hearthstone’s adventures -- but then Gwent isn’t your normal CCG, by merit of being a Witcher spin-off with several of The Witcher 3 writing team working their magic.

Thronebreaker weaves a yarn about the warrior queen of the Northern Realms, Meve. With an enemy invasion on her doorstep, she sets out on a journey of “destruction and revenge”. CDPR promises multi-layered characters, a choice-driven story and the ability to shape the lives of both Meve and the people under her rule. In a nutshell, it sounds like what you’d expect from The Witcher studio, but inside a CCG instead of a gargantuan RPG.

It boasts side quests, the ability to explore new parts of The Witcher’s world via an interactive map and strategy features like resource management, recruitment and unit development. The cards will be different too, crafted specifically for the single-player story. And this is all information from before the scope was increased -- what CDPR are adding isn’t yet clear.

Thronebreaker is due out next year, and that’s when Gwent will be leaving beta, too. In the meantime, Gwent is still in open beta, and you can download it here. Or, if you hate experiencing things for yourself, Martin gave us his early impressions of the bluffing and card-swapping.