The last few years have seen an explosion in collectible card games, with popular spin-offs from games like World of Warcraft, Runescape, and The Elder Scrolls series. Gwent, derived from The Witcher 3’s in-game card game, is set to be the latest.
Gwent and Hearthstone both make our list of the best card games on PC.
With significant competition to consider, it’s worth thinking about how Gwent will fit into the dynamic CCG sub-genre. Jakub Szamalek, principal writer on Gwent, says “I think it’s obvious that [the popularity of CCGs is] in a huge part due to Hearthstone’s influence and the huge amount of success that it enjoyed. I think that’s why people really started thinking about filling up the space.
“As to the question as to whether there is more room, from what I see, the market is shaped a bit like a pyramid, so there’s very little place at the top.”
Szamalek says that means “it’s extremely hard to get anywhere near close in terms of what Hearthstone enjoys in terms of number of players. But I think there is room for good card games, always, and I’m hoping that Gwent will prove to be one of them.”
While Gwent takes place in the world of The Witcher, Geralt will be mostly absent. Gwent’s first story campaign, Thronebreaker, will feature Neve, a northern queen who has previously featured in the Witcher books.