Cash shop confirmed

[SessionZero]

They mentioned increasing the budget so they can improve their servers for the much requested inventory/armoury space additions, but nothing about tripping the game's budget. For comparison, The Witcher 3's development budget is 46m USD which included top of the line visuals at the time, one of the largest open worlds filled to the brim with interesting side quests all somewhat decently voice acted and a 40+ hour main quest line. We don't know much about the expansion... it's possible, but it sounds like a rumour that got out of hand.

Koji Fox said in the keynote at FanFest that Stormblood has triple the budget of Heavensward. Source: I was there, listening.

[Colorful]

Koji Fox said in the keynote at FanFest that Stormblood has triple the budget of Heavensward. Source: I was there, listening.

I'll take your word for it then, excited to see what we'll get from the much larger budget. We're getting the same amount of areas and jobs most likely, so I hope it's not all dumped into advertising like most major titles.