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Guild Wars 2 closed beta 2011 "for sure"

Dev wants "time to react to things".

A Guild Wars 2 closed beta test may be only months away - developer ArenaNet said the accolade-scooping MMO will enter closed beta this year "for sure".

The last time ArenaNet talked to us about a beta was in May.

Late last week, a French site translated a Korean report (via MMOCrunch) about Guild Wars 2 being shown at Korean game show G-Star (November 10th to 13th), "following the start of the Beta West". November, then?

"We're going to go into closed beta by the end of this year for sure," lead content designer Colin Johanson reaffirmed to Eurogamer at the EG Expo 2011.

"We're in closed alpha right now. We're going to go into closed beta by the end of this year. Based on the outcome of the closed beta, that will determine our open beta schedule. Based on the outcome of the open beta, that's going to determine our release date.

"If we tear through the beta and everything's super positive then obviously it'll come out faster. And if we go into the beta process and we see things we want to change, then we have the luxury of having the time to be able to sit down and fix that stuff.

"We really don't know when release is going to be, because we want time to react to things and upgrade and everything."

Johanson said "we don't know yet" how people will be informed of the open beta. "How we're going to announce it and how to get into it - we haven't decided that yet either," he added.

The content available within the beta phases is also still being worked out.

Guild Wars 2 was playable on the Eurogamer Expo 2011 show floor. Special press PVP sessions were held, and our impressions of it will be with you soon.

Guild Wars 2 was yesterday crowned The Eurogamer Expo 2011 Game of the Show.