Gwent's single-player story campaign Thronebreaker has been delayed until next year

CD Projekt has announced that Thronebreaker, its upcoming single-player story campaign for Witcher spin-off collectible card game Gwent, has been delayed into 2018.

Thronebreaker tells the almost-certainly-bloodthirsty tale of Meve, a war-veteran queen of two Northern Realms, who embarks "on a dark journey of destruction and revenge" as an imminent foreign invasion looms. It's set in a previously unseen part of the Witcher world, and features quests, resource gathering, and custom-made story battles. Thronebreaker was originally due to arrive before the end of 2017.

In a post on the official Gwent website, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński blamed the delay on the campaign's increased scope, saying that the developer simply needed more time to work on it. "Shifting release windows is always something we approach seriously," he said, "however, we'll never hesitate to do it if we feel you'll get a better game as a result. I would like to apologize [to] everyone who planned to play Thronebreaker over the Holidays - I assure you that we will do our best to make the final game worth the additional wait."

Iwiński also revealed that the studio intends for Gwent to leave its beta phase next year, and will be "increasing the tempo of multiplayer update releases" as a result.

"We want you to have more fun playing, but we also want to welcome new gamers into an already rolling multiplayer ecosystem. Expect content additions like cards, challenges, vanity items, but also game patches, and balance tweaks to be published more frequently."