NCSoft hints at Guild Wars 2 beta in 2010 and launch in 2011
by Griffin McElroy 
{ Nov 10th 2009 at 6:30PM } 
The last we heard on the tentative launch window of Guild Wars 2 was a fairly vague "2010 or 2011." Fortunately, if comments made by NCSoft CEO Jaeho Lee during a recent investors' call are on the level, it seems NCSoft has made up its mind about the game's release year. Kind of. Somewhat. A little.
While speaking about the game (and another of the company's titles, Blade and Soul), Jaeho stated, "I believe there will be certain public events in the year 2010 ... at least a closed beta test for those titles. Commercialization will be expected, at this point, probably some time in the year 2011." We can stick it out until the year after next before getting our hands on this good-lookin' sequel -- we just hope it's not pushed back any further. See, we'd really like to invest some time in the game before the world ends.
While speaking about the game (and another of the company's titles, Blade and Soul), Jaeho stated, "I believe there will be certain public events in the year 2010 ... at least a closed beta test for those titles. Commercialization will be expected, at this point, probably some time in the year 2011." We can stick it out until the year after next before getting our hands on this good-lookin' sequel -- we just hope it's not pushed back any further. See, we'd really like to invest some time in the game before the world ends.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Discotheque @ Nov 10th 2009 6:33PM
I'd kill for an open beta for this that I could get into. I sadly didn't get invited to the APB beta, and I enjoyed the first Guild Wars.
Marius Returns @ Nov 10th 2009 6:49PM
speaking of Betas
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/10/just-cause-2-trailer-calmly-explains-why-grappling-hooks-are-awe/comments/23005210/
Shagittarius @ Nov 10th 2009 6:52PM
If this game has a more persistent world than the first one I'll check it out. Otherwise if it's just another diablo clone albiet with a well thoughtout PVP mechanic I'll probably just ignore it.
brian @ Nov 10th 2009 6:59PM
MMOs are the creation of Beelzebub
Discotheque @ Nov 10th 2009 7:01PM
Eh I don't know why they get so much hate. I'm personally not a big fan of them, but Guild Wars is subscription-free and has some good production values so I like that.
But I don't see how an MMO fan is any different from your average COD or Halo fan these days.
Wes @ Nov 10th 2009 7:19PM
I think the difference is that eventually a new Halo game comes out and gamer's get better graphics, gameplay, new features, etc and abandon the old game for the most part. IE Halo 3 has a lot more indepth combat than Halo 1 had. Halo 3's multiplayer system is years beyond Halo 1's multiplayer system.
Wow, for the most part, is still wow. Its received very tiny cosmetic upgrades, mostly from the same-engine but with better graphics card hardware pushing it to the point htat now, even $110.00 graphics cards can run wow at 5760x1200x8aax16af with all details on high and maintain a steady near 60 fps. (ATi Radeon HD 5750)
You'd be very hard pressed to find a similar video card that can do the equivilent settings in Halo 3 for that price.
When wow was first released, there was no way a $100.00 video card could do that. Wow had this new, huge, beautiful, immersive world that was fun to explore, looked great, felt great. For me anyways, wow doesn't have that same-feel anymore. It has a more-of-the-same-feel.
Halo 3 has at least evolved a reasonable bit from Halo 1. Wow: BC compared to Wow and Wow: wotlk compared to Wow: BC has had pretty small changes. Really, you have a few new classes whose abilities look/feel remarkably similar to the previous classes. The exception being maybe the death-knight. I mean with BC, is a blood elf priest really that that different from a troll priest? Does the horde getting Paladin's really add anything new to the gameplay since you could have just rolled an alliance paladin before? Does the BC dungeons look that much better than the dungeons in wow? Does Naxarramas in WOTLK look better than it did 5 years ago when Naxarramas was in Wow? I don't think so.
The Dark Wayne [Planeteer: Power of the Batusi] @ Nov 10th 2009 7:41PM
Naxx doesnt look better but it sure PLAYS better. Graphics arent everything, and even without expansions, there are always patches adding new stuff, after starting at the start of the game's second year I STILL find myself finding new things with a sense of awe and wonderment. Granted, it just dawned on my that WoTLK came out an entire year ago, and that I dont have that same sense of exploration and wonder, but that's true with everything. No movie is as exciting when you watch it the second time and know all it's twists, and neither are games whether they be WoW or Halo!
Olicon @ Nov 10th 2009 8:57PM
@Wes
WoW hasn't changed much? I think the addition of 20 levels (soon to be 25), total overhaul of multiple classes (Paladins were gutted, Mages have gone through multiple evolution, not to mention an entire DK class), multiple PvP modes and rather imaginative mechanics for boss fights not only evolve the game--it evolves the entire genre.
Seems like the only thing you bother looking at is graphics. You can pull up classic vs WotLK screenies, and you'd see pretty vast difference in the level of texture detail. Animation has become much more crisp as well.
Halo, on the other hand, really hadn't evolved much. I think the addition of skull modes and mutiplayer game play type was quite revolutionary in FPS world. But Halo really hasn't progressed beyond that. I mean, look at Halo's weapons compared to TF2 or Resistance: Halo has a gun that zoom, while Resistance has the Augur that excels at shooting through walls, and TF2's Jarate speaks for itself.
alinos @ Nov 10th 2009 9:37PM
to me MMO hate has nothing to do with that
most people dont like the fact that to stay competitive in PvP youve gotta constantly go looking for better gear(GW had the advantage of everything being capped so it came down to how you skilled your char)
its killed the traditional RPG
off the top of my head i can only think or Dragon Age and Risen this year at most theres 1-2 that im not recalling
Grinding/ lack of story
both of these reduce immersion(may be a good thing), the Lore books scattered around WoW do not count as story, a story is told to me i dont have to go find the tiny ass book to get a page of lore that warcraft 3 probs taught me
Grahpics mean nothing to me personally id rather gameplay and story sumthing the aforementioned halo series lost imo after halo 1
the pay per month arguement that so many yell and scream about is flawed
since in Aus its 15Au a month approx so over the year its 180 so like 2 other games which if there shooters last 10 hours tops SP and MP varies(odds are though the guys addicted to wow dont play that long) where theyll play a MMO for 100+ hours a year easy so there actually saving money rather than buying other games to kill time
The Dark Wayne [Planeteer: Power of the Batusi] @ Nov 10th 2009 7:42PM
I'll never understand sequels to mmos, if they ever create a WoW 2 i'd be very hard pressed to leave my years of work behind given that everquest 2 didnt and it would be unlikely for WoW 2 to carry over levels and gear
geoff0011 @ Nov 10th 2009 8:58PM
I'm a big Guild Wars fan, and I've been anxiously awaiting GW2 for years now. In a tradional MMO I can understand your point, but you should research ArenaNet's point of view on this. They said that they had so many new and exciting ideas for expansions, but were limited with their current GW engine that it would have been easier to just make a sequel. This was their first major attempt at a MMO, and in my opinion it was a huge success. For me they showed that you can be very successful and have great production value while not charging a monthly fee, something I feel should be adopted by most MMOs.
I play MMOs too sparadically to ever consider paying monthly. I don't know how many times I've quit GW, only to come back a couple days a week here and there a month to play, but I would feel ripped off paying for that every month. I've sunk about 3500 hours over the past 4 years, that's a lot of time to spend consistantly paying every month. Every thing I've heard that they plan to do with GW2 I'm excited for. It seems like they take as many good ideas and concepts that are successful in other MMOs, and change the negative aspects of those games.
A couple of ideas they've adopted is the new persistant world, there will still be instanced story missions and dungeons (dungeons is important because it's never fun to sit and wait for a respawn.) The #1 thing for me, they are going to make it easy to play with your friends. They HATE MMOs that make you play on certain servers, and if you ever want to change to a server that a friend is on, that it will cost you. They are going to have separate servers, but they have said that they are going to make it something that will be very accessable for people to change at any point, so meeting up with friends won't be a hassle: THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!!!
It just seems like they want to make an MMO the way it should be, and not to abuse it like WoW as a business prospective by nickeling and diming every consumer. Come on WoW...$15 a month, expensive to change servers, like $25 to change your characters race, and the sad part is, Blizzard fans will always stick up for every decision they make no matter how much in the end it screws them. Blizzard to me is a terrible company who just happens to make good games. Why fans say Starcraft 2 being three games is a great idea boggles me. Why they will only release one game a year, why people think that's a good idea, even though Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 look like they are nearly finished projects. Consumers need to wake up!
R (Planeteers | Power of Penile Pulse) @ Nov 10th 2009 9:00PM
You never played GW much, or at all.
GW 1 has been/is basically a 4-5 year long beta/playground for them to make GW2. That game has changed sooooo much throughout its life its practically a different game. The since of balance, the overall purpose and feel of pve/pvp, the way pvp and pve are played, have changed dramatically. In its first year, if a boss hit a single target for 150, 200 damage in the end game, it was like 0.o Oh Em Gee.
Nowadays most bosses have instant kill capablities. One boss in the lastest GW expansion has an AoE skill that does around 450 damage, twice in about a .5 second period (instant kill to many characters), and hes found about 1/2 way through the game. The power creep has been massive, and their overall mission goal of "skill, not time played" was spit on, raped, murdered, ressed at 50% HP and then chained naked and eyeless in a basement to suffer, because every single "thing" you can do in the past 2 games has been severly grind based. We are talking about the introduction of things that can take 6 in-game days of micromanaging in order to accomplish.
That being said, pvp is still pretty fun and its a blast to play if you have a good group of friends. its just sad to see how much its basically sold out.
R (Planeteers | Power of Penile Pulse) @ Nov 10th 2009 9:05PM
I feel the need to justify my first statement. GW 2, from what i hear, will have a level cap possibly in the 100's (or no level cap at all), a change from GW's lvl cap of 20. They plan on balancing it out by giving lower lvls a "sidekick" that will be buffed when they are in a group of higher lvls. also, eventually lvling adds less and less to your overall power. They are putting in many grind based titles as well, and bringing persistance.
Pvp will be the only reason I get this game, as from what I can tell they plan on making it non-gear based, which is a nice change from most MMOs.
alinos @ Nov 10th 2009 9:41PM
actually from what i took from things made a year ago may have changed the lvl starts to just become representative of how much experience youve earned and stops adding power to you charachter
when my main had earned 25Millon EXP and my alt 2Million (example numbers) but both lvl 20 not really much overall difference between them
Mitsuo @ Nov 10th 2009 8:04PM
why does that look like a rip off of dragon age's symbol/art style?
WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Nov 10th 2009 8:49PM
Yeah either that or it looks like a rip off Guild Wars 1, which came out years ago.
Mitsuo @ Nov 10th 2009 8:52PM
no I'm talking about how the 2 is also a dragon and such.
geoff0011 @ Nov 10th 2009 9:01PM
Where have you been? The logos been out for a long time. Guild Wars 2 will revolve around dragons, this logo is based off fire, Dragon Age is based off blood splatter. Just because they are similar one ripped off the other? The Dragons don't even look similar.
geoff0011 @ Nov 10th 2009 9:01PM
Where have you been? The logos been out for a long time. Guild Wars 2 will revolve around dragons, this logo is based off fire, Dragon Age is based off blood splatter. Just because they are similar one ripped off the other? The Dragons don't even look similar.
Toop @ Nov 11th 2009 9:08AM
I don't know about ripping off, but I admit the similarities made me think of Dragon Age right away.
WaterHand @ Nov 10th 2009 8:21PM
Oh good. Just enough time to finish the CEs of Factions and Nightfall I just got in the mail and to gain 200 lbs in the process.
rahmenxnoodles69 @ Nov 11th 2009 12:20AM
Is it just me or does that logo look strikingly similar to the Dragon Age Origins one?
JeezWhiz87 @ Nov 10th 2009 9:16PM
The original Guild Wars devoured my life for almost a year before I was able to wrestle it back from it's oh-so-appealing maw, and yet I still can't wait to sacrifice my life on an alter again when the sequel comes out. Can we play this sooner? PLEASE?!
Toop @ Nov 11th 2009 9:08AM
The environments in that trailer were fantastic! This is one of those games where the landscapes make me just want to jump in and explore.
Mr.ESC @ Nov 11th 2009 11:38AM
DAMN!
Guildwars had a good gameplay it could have reached glory if they made some adjustments.
Better spell animations would have helped since all spells looked like Dazzle Dazzle and lens flare.
Better presentation for all the quest.GW had better quest than Wow or your average cookie cutter MMO but the wall-o-text made them rather boring and you couldn't immerse on the story at all.
Other than that it was a great game with excellent gameplay,I liked the fact you had to capture spells in Nightfall instead of grinding for months to get fireball.