Gwent Witcher-Based Card Game Is Being Discontinued On Consoles

Whenever a new type of game becomes extremely popular and profitable, there comes a flood of titles that try to jump on board and capitalize on the hype. Sometimes, one or two successfully become the kings of that genre, like Fortnite and PUBG or battle royales and League of Legends and Dota 2 for MOBAs. The one genre that seems to be an impenetrable fortress is card games, still ruled by Hearthstone. Many have tried but just as many bit the dust. CD Projekt's Gwent, spun off from The Witcher franchise, may still be in the running but it is now shedding off its console version to focus on PC and mobile.

That may be a bit disappointing to hear considering how the game launched first on PC then on the PS4 and Xbox One last year before coming to iOS barely two months ago. The game isn't even on Android yet and there is no official word yet on when that will happen. Given that situation, the only supported platforms for the game will practically be PC and iOS.

Developers CD Projekt admits that the game was not as popular on consoles as it was on the aforementioned supported devices. That may have something to do with how the genre itself may not exactly be that popular on consoles anyway. Even Hearthstone isn't available there. Regardless, Gwent will no longer work on consoles after June 9, 2020 but players won't have to quit the game just because of that.

Starting December 9, 2019, players on PS4 and Xbox One will have a chance to migrate their accounts to GOG.com, presuming they haven't used the latter for PC or mobile versions yet. PS4 players will, unfortunately, have to spend all their Meteorite Powder as those won't be carried over to the GOG.com version. They have at least 6 months to do so and while the game will still be playable during that period, it will no longer receive updates nor allow purchases on consoles using real-world money.

The timing of this announcement seems a bit weird considering Netflix's The Witcher will be premiering in two weeks. That could have created a surge of interest in the franchise, though console gamers might be more inclined to buy the real RPG (which includes the original Gwent mini-game) instead of a card-based version.