As expected, Guild Wars 2 is not going to be released anytime soon. NCsoft released their third quarter (2009) report. While ArenaNet might be secretive about their project, their parent company has shareholders to answer to. Historically, the Earning Releases from NCsoft have revealed many secrets. But with this report, I had to dig a little deeper. The pretty PDF didn’t contain the information I was looking for. Instead, I had to listen to a recording of the English Conference Call. At the 21:00 minute mark, the fate of Guild Wars was revealed. It’s not going to be released this year… not even next year… but “probably sometime year 2011.”
NCsoft is enjoying great success with Aion, which lead to record high quarterly sales for the company. As a Guild Wars fan, this makes me sad. ArenaNet should be the best! Guild Wars should be the #1 MMORPG! In the last 12 months, NCsoft’s stock more than tripled. Aion shined while Guild Wars 2 sleeps – like those dragons deep below Tyria. Although, success for Aion means success for Guild Wars! If Aion had been a failure, like Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault, I don’t know what that would do to ArenaNet and Guild Wars.
There was some good news. It is possible that a beta test is getting closer.
As for the new titles, as we already announced, there are Blade and Soul being developed in Korea and also Guild Wars 2 under development in US. I believe that there will be a certain public event in the year 2010. So, at this point, it could be a at least a closed beta test for those titles.
– Jaeho Lee
In order to be a great leader, one needs foresight… the ability to predict the future. And while I saw this coming, it doesn’t make this news any easier. Although, I must admit, I do find this news to be encouraging. With roughly two years to launch, I have the space I need to build… THE ULTIMATE GUILD WARS FANSITE… and I can catch up with my title farming. It also gives ArenaNet the time they need to make Guild Wars 2 better.