Guild Wars 2 expected in 2011

By Oli Welsh Published 10 November, 2009

Might get into closed beta next year.

NCsoft has indicated that it doesn't expect to release its MMO sequel Guild Wars 2 until 2011, although it might get as far as closed beta testing in 2010.

Jaeho Lee - the company's chief financial officer, as well as chief executive of its Western arm - told investors during a recent conference call that NCsoft didn't expect to make any major launches in 2010. Guild Wars 2 from ArenaNet, and Blade & Soul from the Lineage 2 team in Korea, would follow in 2011, he said.

"I believe there will be certain public events in the year 2010... at least a closed beta test for those titles. Commercialisation will be expected, at this point, probably some time in the year 2011," Lee said.

The comments were spotted by fan site Guild Wars 2 Slovenia (via VE3D). You can download and listen to the conference call at the NCsoft website.

The last word on Guild Wars 2's release was TBA 2010/2011. Since then, it's had its public unveiling in a trailer at gamescom in Cologne in the summer. Read more in our exclusive preview.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • optimusprym8 #1 2 years ago

    Blade & Soul looks fantastic, looking forward to it, but could easily be canned knowing NCsoft. Will be interesting to see which way GW2 goes after all this time...

  • Anufea #2 2 years ago

    With quite some details already known about GW2 I had hoped we would see this done by the end of 2010 - sigh.

    Still, great to see how much work they still put into GW1, really appreciate that with no monthly fees and all...

  • ZuluHero #3 2 years ago

    and with GW2 doing the same sub-free model its really going to be interesting to see what happens with other sub based MMOs. We already know the quailty of GW1.

    I know blizzard raised the bar helped pushed the quality of P2P MMOs in general, but GWs is really going to put that into question.I wonder if this could be a reason why even Blizzard have started looking more and more at micro-transactions?

  • WJF #4 2 years ago

    GW1 was excellent. Will be picking this up...maybe the first MMO I buy on launch.

  • VicViper #5 2 years ago

    Aww thats so far away, at least I have time to get a new laptop, those trailers suggest I might need a bit more power.

  • specular #6 2 years ago

    I have some fond memories of GW although I don't play it anymore. The atmosphere in that game was great. 2011 is indeed far away, but Blizz will be releasing another expansion in 2010, so maybe it's for the better.

  • Nephirion #7 2 years ago

    probably some time in the year 2011 ... this guy should work for blizzard

  • hiddenranbir #8 2 years ago

    Argh, another year of waiting!

  • Ced_Flanders #9 2 years ago

    I still play the original GW intensly for a week or so every couple of months, the community is still very active and I love the skill based rather than XP based system.

  • barnettbeans #10 2 years ago

    Wow how small is the team on it? and why so long to develop an expandable game? Surely it makes more sense to release some of the game at least enough to keep players busy and give the financial backers enough believe to pump more in to the game for an expansion. GW has a huge following and imp is the only real rival to WOW I would certainly pay £5 a month to play over wows 10

  • wayn3h #11 2 years ago

    I have recently rekindled my love with Guild Wars. I can't believe how much they've added in the year and a half I've been away. And all for no monthly subscription. Surely nothing negative can be said about ArenaNet in that department.

    As for the 2011 release? Well I guess it gives me time to get from R10 to R12. Speaking of which, I hope they keep to a skills based PvP (as they currently have) and not gimp it so whoever has the best gear=winner.