The Witcher 3's competitive card game Gwent is being adapted into a new standalone single-player game due out later this year.
The card game, codenamed Project Golden Nekker, is being developed by CD Projekt Red's in-house Gwent team and is intended to be particularly different from previous versions of the card game, IGN says in its game reveal statement. .
This description sounds similar to 2018's Thronebreaker: A Witcher Tale, another Gwent indie game, but CD Projekt Red claims the two will be different.
"This is not another Witcher Tales but something different," Paweł Burza, Team Gwent's communications manager, told IGN. "Our goal is to provide an engaging single-player game for players who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent."
Various pieces of concept art have been revealed, including the titular Golden Nekker, an item of fire, Living Fire (which looks like a flaming skull), and The Barbarian, which has only now been revealed by IGN. Two other pieces of art show environmental areas instead of characters, including a market and a library containing a hidden Golden Nekker.
While it's not yet known exactly when the game will release, in a developer update for the existing multiplayer game Gwent last December, game director Vladimir Tortsov mentioned the new title, saying the team wanted to "announce things in the ones we're working on." in the right moment".
IGN also notes that when Thronebreaker was released, its new maps were added to the main multiplayer version of Gwent. With new maps scheduled to release for Gwent in April, July, October, and December of this year, Golden Nekker could launch in any of those months.
Analysis: Gwent is the legacy of The Witcher
(*two*)Gwent has garnered quite a following since The Witcher 3 was released in 2015. Mentioned in the original novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, the card game's inclusion was not a new idea, but instead followed a long tradition of role-playing game designers including minigames between epic missions. . and open worlds.
Unlike Fallout's Caravan and Star War: Knights of the Old Republic's Pazaak before it, however, Gwent was able to foster an entire community around her. The fact that CD Projekt Red has been able to create a full multiplayer game, a single player title, and now a second standalone version of the card game speaks volumes about the loyalty of its players.
With no rumors of The Witcher 4 and CD Projekt Red still developing next-gen ports of Cyberpunk 2077, this is probably the only new Witcher content we'll see for a while. When it comes to the world of video games, Gwent's little card game has done a lot to keep Geralt's world relevant.
As for what exactly Golden Nekker will be, it's remarkably similar to Thronebreaker in form, if not content. A standalone single-player Gwent experience, it may take on a different format than The Witcher Tales game, but it's certainly aimed at similar gamers.
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