CD Projekt Red have announced Witcher: Battle Arena, a multiplayer online battle arena game, set in the same universe as the company’s The Witcher series.
The game is being developed externally by Fuero Games, and will be made for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows tablets. The game is completely free to play, and the company says you can play for as long as you like, and everything can be unlocked for free; however there are optional purchases for those who want to unlock something faster available for “reasonable prices.” In addition to the standard online battle mode, there is a solo option included as well. In solo mode, players play against bots instead of other players. There are also 8 unique heroes that you can play as, named Zoltan Chivay, Letho of Gulet, Eithne of Brokilon, Golem, Saskia of Aedirn, Philippa Eilhart, The Operator, and Iorveth, which you can use in a variety of game modes including the 3v3 Conquest game mode.
Being on mobile is a major angle Fuero Games looks to capitalize on. “We don’t want to fight with League of Legends or DotA,” CD Projekt Red creative analyst Tadeusz Zieliński told Polygon. “This was designed with mobile gaming in mind, and to be honest it’s not easy to transfer MOBA to mobile. I dare you to name three MOBA games on mobile. But mobile is the direction we wanted to go because they’re finally powerful enough to let us do everything we want on that small screen.” Battle Arena matches are shorter than your average MOBA game, in order to better work with mobile gamers quick fix mindset.
While this game is on a smaller screen, it doesn’t seem like CD Projekt Red or Fuero Games are thinking small at all. Witcher: Battle Arena looks incredibly deep and engaging, and being based in an excellent universe like The Witcher’s doesn’t hurt either. Look for this game on mobile devices soon.