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Gwent Closed Beta Briefly Delayed Until October

By Asma M
Published on: 14:58 PST, Aug 10, 2016

Today, CD Project Red has announced a brief delay in rolling out the closed beta for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Originally due to begin in September, the closed beta will now begin on October 25. Gwent takes the characters and the lore of The Witcher games and rolls them into a unique card game experience complete with a single-player story.

The standalone Gwent game is a completely new experience and different from the Gwent game that appears in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. In an open letter to gamers everywhere, the Gwent team has said the game needs some additional polish before it goes to the public testing phase.

“At E3 we announced that we’d launch the Closed Beta of GWENT: The Witcher Card Game in September. Unfortunately, we feel we need some extra time with the game before we hand it off to you for testing. We know we can make a first impression only once, and want to be sure everything is ready before we blast off. Delivering a good game is more important to us than keeping a deadline. Still, that doesn’t mean we don’t realize that delays can be disappointing, and we apologize for making you wait. Closed Beta will now begin on October 25th.”

Gamers interested in applying for a spot in the closed beta can still do so by visiting playgwent.com. Although the final game is expected to launch on PlayStation 4, the closed beta is exclusively available on Xbox One and PC.

Fans eager to try out Gwent before the closed beta will have an opportunity to do so at Gamescom, which takes place in Cologne, Germany from August 17 until August 21. The demo will be going on in the Entertainment Area, which is located in Hall 8 at Booth B-053. Although Gwent was playable at E3, only members of the press and industry were able to get their hands on it. The demo at Gamescom marks the first time Gwent is being made available to the public. Marcin Momot, Senior Social Media and Community Coordinator, details the significance of this showing and invites players to provide candid feedback.

“Gwent was made because of the amazing effort of The Witcher community — we’ve received tons and tons of messages to make a standalone version happen and now we finally have the chance to show Gwent to the public for the first time! Gamescom is one of those special events that allows us to thank gamers for their support in person. So we’d love to have a chat with you in Cologne, hear your thoughts about Gwent and get direct feedback on how the game plays for you.”

The art featured on Gwent cards is garnering quite a bit of attention from fans, as well. Art dealer Cook & Becker is selling officially licensed prints of the artwork on their website. At Comic-Con International: San Diego, Dark Horse Comics announced they would be collecting the art from the card game into a hardbound art book titled Art of Witcher: Gwent Gallery Collection. The book features hundreds of art pieces not seen before. It will also give a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the game. A price for the book will be announced at a later date.

Dark Horse is also crafting an 8.5-inch bust of Geralt holding Gwent playing cards. There is no word yet on the price or number of the statuettes that will be produced, but each bust will come with a certificate of authenticity. Both Gwent: The Witcher Card Game collectibles from Dark Horse have a release date of February 17, 2017.

[Image via CD Projekt Red]

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