You no longer have to traverse wyvern-invested lands to find a game of Gwent. The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC can now bring the game directly to your home.
Developer CD Projekt Red started sending out invitations to the closed beta for Gwent, the standalone version of the card battler that first appeared in the studio’s epic The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt adventure. The testing phase goes live later today, and you should look for your invite if you signed up for one on the PlayGwent website. Digital card games are a lucrative business that generates $2 billion per year primarily from the market leader Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and now CD Projekt Red is aiming to grab some of that cash.
“Gwent is an example of how the community can have actual impact on game developers,” CD Projekt Red senior community coordinator Marcin Momot said in a statement. “What we created as a part of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, is now, because of your involvement, a standalone game and a totally different experience that firmly stands on its own.”
Gwent has players controlling creatures and items in a head-to-head battle on a multilevel grid. Like many of these kinds of games, CD Projekt Red’s card game is easy to learn and difficult to master. After getting players hooked on the game in The Witcher 3, the studio started making moves to get it out on its own.
“The closed beta is another step in that process,” said Momot. “You can now help us shape the game into something you can call your own.”
While Gwent is not heading to Android and iOS devices yet — according to the developer — it is part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program. That means you can get it for Xbox One, and then all of your progress and purchases will carry over to Windows 10.