Gwent introduces player-driven 'balance council' after official development concludes

techradar.com:

Official development on Gwent: The Witcher Card Game has wrapped, with CD Projekt Red leaving future balance changes in the hands of its player base.

Arguably one of the best free games available on PC and mobile, Gwent's final patch, Update 11.10, will be its last. The update itself isn't particularly substantial, as is outlined in its accompanying developer stream. But a new feature known as the Balance Council is being introduced for the first time.

As CD Projekt Red will no longer be providing updates or new cards for Gwent, it's elected to leave the future state of the game's balance to its players, who'll be able to vote on changes to up to three cards or leader abilities once a month. Players can vote to buff or nerf a card's power or cost.

But not just anyone will be able to vote in Gwent's Balance Council. First, players will need to reach Prestige 1 in-game, racked up 25 ranked wins or attained Rank 0 to be eligible for voting in the Balance Council. In theory, this should limit any changes made to be done by those who have a good grasp on the game and its mechanics. Additionally, individual cards and leader abilities will need 50 votes or more in order for the changes to be greenlit, and no more than 15 cards in a month will receive changes.

It makes sense for Gwent's development to be winding down, given CD Projekt Red will be going full steam ahead on The Witcher 4as well as the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. It's at least nice to see that the game isn't abruptly being taken offline and instead passed on to the players who care about it the most.

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