CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher spin-off Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales launched by surprise recently onto the Nintendo Switch. The title was initially launched a GOG exclusive title but was eventually released on Steam and consoles months later.
The game is based on characters from the novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski, but some of them were mentioned in The Witcher game trilogy.
The story from the official Nintendo trailer states: “Thronebreaker is a single player role-playing game that combines narrative-driven exploration with unique puzzles and turn-based battles, and spins the tale of Meve, war-veteran queen of two Northern Realms — Lyria and Rivia. Facing an imminent Nilfgaardian invasion, Meve is forced to once again enter the warpath and set out on a dark journey of destruction and revenge.”
The title is more story-heavy than The Witcher games. The content is all through GWENT, the card game, which is also a spin-off of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Players do have the option to play a lesser difficulty mode where they can focus on the story instead of gameplay.
Thronebreaker does not focus on Geralt, although CDPR makes it clear that he has some part of the story. CDPR has excelled on bringing life into other characters in the Witcher world. However, Thronebreaker, like The Witcher trilogy, is only inspired by the novels and not official adaptations.
While the title has reached the Nintendo Switch, there are no plans for other Witcher Tales in the future. CDPR has mentioned in multiple interviews that the game did not perform well. GWENT also recently lost console support and is now only playable on PC and mobile devices. While GWENT was highly popular after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released, it seems that the card game is losing steam for some.
The low performance may be due to the exclusive launch on GOG, which is owned by CDPR. Many PC gamers only choose to play on one digital platform and missed out on playing Thronebreaker until it was released on Steam.
The game is only available as a digital download on the Nintendo Switch eShop for 4.3 GB.
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is available now for PC via GOG and Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.
