Why Did CDPR Release Rogue Mage Like This?

thegamer.com:

A new Witcher game came out this week, though you probably didn’t hear about it. Gwent: Rogue Mage is a standalone roguelike deck builder that was announced on Wednesday and released on Thursday. I’m not against a surprise shadow drop when it’s part of a Nintendo Direct or some other event - we all like those “and you can play it right now!” moments - but this one is just weird. I’m not sure how CDPR expected anyone to find out about this game, but then I’m also not sure why it exists in the first place.

Rogue Mage is completely separate from Gwent, though it shares the same basic gameplay mechanics of playing cards to build up a score higher than your opponent’s. It follows a mage named Alzur on his journey to create the first Witcher. Across dozens of runs you’ll defeat bosses and collect mutagens that are used to experiment on Alzur’s subjects. This story is incredibly light, told through short dialogue sequences between encounters and simple cutscenes when you make significant progress. Don’t expect a big sweeping epic like the one found in Thronebreaker, Gwent’s other standalone game. In fact, don’t expect anything even close to the kind of experience Thronebreaker has to offer.

I’m a huge fan of Thronebreaker’s story and puzzle-like battles. It managed to eliminate the complexity of regular Gwent deck building, which is both wide open to possibilities and extremely narrow within the meta, at the same time. Thronebreaker starts you with a basic deck that grows over time as you learn more about the system, and it rewards you for discovering ways to overcome the unique mechanics that appear in almost every encounter. It’s still the best blend of RPG and CCG I’ve seen, and it’s hard not to hold Rogue Mage to that same