Polish developer CD Projekt is the latest studio to jump on the MOBA bandwagon. Already hard at work on The Witcher 3, they have teamed up with Fuero Games to create a free to play title called The Witcher: Battle Arena for mobiles. The studio sees this game as an important step in growing the Witcher franchise. In an interview with Eurogamer, project manager Tadek Zielinski explained that, ”The Witcher universe is vast. You are familiar with the term expanded universe. We have comic books, our board game, so this is another step in that direction. We actually want to grow and this is one of the ways we want to do it.”
Whilst the PC is suffering from an overload of companies trying to recreate the success of League of Legends, CD Projekt Red noticed that there was a gap in the market on iOS and Android. “I dare you to name three MOBA games on mobile devices,” said Zielinsk, ” I think it would be hard for you to do it”. The team has been very focused on making sure that Battle Arena is a good fit for it’s platform. They have streamlined MOBA gameplay to suit tablets and phones by removing mobs and using simple touch screen controls.
In the interview, Zielinski was keen to stress that Battle Arena will not be pay to win.”It will be a free game. A genuinely free game. You know we are fair with gamers. We are known for giving away stuff for free. We believe free is fair. So we wanted to realise our philosophy also with the MOBA game. If you don’t want to farm for your hero you can buy him. And also there are vanity items you pay for. Every price you see in the game will be a fair price given in a normal currency, but there will be absolutely no pay to win elements in our game.”
The Witcher: Battle Arena will out in Q4 2014 for iOS, Android and Windows tablet and smartphone devices.
Via Eurogamer