Endless speculation can finally come to a close, as CD Projekt RED is very pleased to announce that on April 7th, The Witcher: DuelMail open beta, based on the best-selling game, The Witcher, will begin. The Witcher: DuelMail is a completely free-of-charge next-gen web-browser game offering lots of options that are rarely found in similar products. The release of final version is scheduled for 9th of May.

The essence of The Witcher: DuelMail are fights between players incarnated as one of three completely different character classes. Winning consecutive fights allows players to gain experience, advancing to higher levels of development, along with gaining new skills and items to use in combat. The game has been designed to be played in turn, which results in sending challenges with set-up fight sequences to other players. In order to join in the fun, the game simply requires a PC with an internet connection and a web browser with Flash installed.

We have just released Patch 1.2a, which is designed to correct an occasional compatibility issue we found between the download version of The Witcher and Patch 1.2. We suggest to download and install the new patch from our site.

Despite the fact that the award season is coming to an end, The Witcher is still garnering positive acclaim from media and gamers. An exceptional shower of awards has fallen at Absolute Games gaming site, where The Witcher has been honored in a staggering 10 categories, winning, among others, the most important one as Game of the Year, as well as the best RPG of 2007, best licensed game, best score and best story. The efforts of CD Projekt RED were also much appreciated, as our team was named Developers Team of the Year.

The Witcher also received the RPG of the Year title (along with second place in the Game of the Year category) at one of the biggest German sites, OnlineWelten, the RPG of the Year title at Gamestar as well as the best licensed game (along with honors in four other categories) in the Czech gaming magazine, Hrej!

I’ve been a registered user of the Witcher Board since the very beginning of its existence, i.e. September 2004. I was drawn here by my affection for Sapkowski’s works and various RPGs – I just couldn’t not get interested in The Witcher. From the beginning I’ve tried to actively participate in the life of the newborn community. It was manifested by my involvement on the Board and by running, together with Tibor, the first Polish Witcher fansite – www.witcher.elkander.pl. After a few months, my work was seemingly appreciated by the community and I was chosen to be a moderator. After the game’s premiere my passion fortunately didn’t die down – I’m currently helping Eriash in developing the Witcher community. My motivation is not only the game but also the people themselves – I’ve met dozens of incredible people on the Board – thanks! :) I’d also like to thank Undomiel and Tibor for their support in difficult times :)

Name: Maciej Koński
Board Nick: Keth
Age: 19
Place: Kraków (Cracow), Poland

Are you a Witcher fan and want to get involved in the life of our community? If so, we’re looking for you! Everyone interested in starting their own fansite, helping to build the WitcherWiki or anyone who wants to execute other ideas are more than welcome to contact us at fansite@kaermorhen.com

We have two more language versions joining the 12 already existing Wikis – Serbian and Italian. Everyone who is fluent in those languages is welcome to support their development. All other Wikis are also waiting for your contribution. Current list of all language versions can be found here: http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=6374.0

We encourage you to visit & comment recently updated The Witcher Developer Blogs. Full list of the blogs you will find here.

Here you can find RSS feeds for the blogs:

Kasia Kuczyńska, designer
Piotr Chomiak, senior animator
Daniel Sadowski, engine programmer
Łukasz Mach, PR manager

If you still have not bought your copy of The Witcher and want to join the hundreds of thousands of players who are enjoying the game, order it now (http://www.atari.com/us/thewitcherbuy/). You can also check amazon.co.uk for The Witcher or download the game via Metaboli (European version).