…yeah. There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding the recent “delay” for Guild Wars 2….the fact that there isn’t one:
There have been some published rumors over the past few days about Guild Wars 2 delays, and I’m writing you today to set the record straight.
You’ve all seen announcements about restructuring at NCsoft West, and it’s natural to wonder whether that restructuring impacts ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 development. In fact, the reason NCsoft West is restructuring itself is so that the company can put all of its focus into its top-tier games like Guild Wars 2. Our team continues to grow, and has the strong support and financial backing we need to achieve our goal of making Guild Wars 2 the best online role-playing game ever created.
On Friday, NCsoft released investor materials that showed a very broad release window for Guild Wars 2, with the explanation that release timing is still “to be announced.” ArenaNet has never given a release date for Guild Wars 2 other than “when it’s done.” NCsoft’s investor materials are a reflection of that philosophy.
I know some fans had hoped for a smaller gap between the launch of Guild Wars: Eye of the North and the start of beta testing for Guild Wars 2, but we communicated last summer that it would be some time before we could commit to any beta or launch dates. Guild Wars 2 is a large and ambitious game, and we’re going to take the time to do it right.
I’m immensely proud of what our team has accomplished and continues to accomplish with the development of Guild Wars 2. We’ll have a lot more to say when we’re closer to release. Until then, we thank you for your continued interest and ask you to stay tuned.
uhhh…huh. As a side comment, I seem to remember when another certain game was also once considered “top-tier”. NC Soft kiss of death….lol. “Nooooooo….don’t call my game top-tier!!!”
Anyway. There was never really was a release date given to the fans….more like a wishful-thinking-maybe-we’ll-see-it-then range that some players got into their head and confused that with a release promise from NC Soft.
Sounds like they are going with the “when it’s ready” line that Blizzard often uses for their games. Smart move considering that the Guild Wars IP is absolutely huge for NC Soft.
D out.
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February 17th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Quote: “Guild Wars 2 is a large and ambitious game”
Uh-oh. Whenever someone who is intimately involved with the development progress (as I’m sure the quoted person is) says something like this, you have to begin to worry about the games quality when launched.
“large and ambitious” is the same thing as saying “we have a billion features and ideas, we’re not man enough to cut things, so we’re just gonna ship them all half assed INSTEAD of having a few be really awesome and amazingly polished.”
Sigh.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I remember Mythic saying they wouldn’t launch WAR until it was ready too…
Good times.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
[...] the an open letter from Mike O’Brien, Guild Wars 2 overlord, in direct response to the community reaction caused by the released report. He stated that Guild Wars 2 would be released “when [...]
February 17th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
@Snafzg – But did the specify what is was to be ready for?
February 17th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
“When it’s done” was obvious. The ArenaNet founders (and Guild Wars originators) are ex-Blizzard after all.
They’ll make sure it’s ready and then release it, as they did with Guild Wars.
It still looks set to be absolutely awesome, but I had hoped for a slightly earlier launch than 2010 – DNF. (Duke Nukem Fornever)
Ah well, there are plenty of cool MMO’s launching in the meanwhile. Aion, Jumpgate Evolution, EVE-O: Apocrypha -> here I come!
February 17th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Couple things.
Seems like NCSoft is structuring their entire western development efforts under the ArenaNet guys. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with it but it might.
I think the real reason for this (not)delay is that they are making room for Aion.
If Aion tanks in the West, I bet we see that GW2 launch date move up a bit. Given that I would bet Aion tanks in the West I would say we will see GW2 sooner than latter.
On a side note, I think all these games that are shooting for 2010/2011 need to be careful. Blizzard has been working for a few years on their next MMORPG and while it is most likely still a ways away, I don’t know how far away it is. Activision wants one Blizzard game a year – 2009 SC2, 2010 Diablo 3, 2011 ? (could just be the 2 other parts of SC2 they chopped off or maybe….). Either way I’m sure Blizzard will have at least announced some details on their next MMORPG by then – WOW will be 6 years old then after all.
February 17th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
How come the blogs were posting “Yay, GW2 comes out in 2010-2011″ and the news sites got “GW2 delayed until 2010-2011″ from the same data?
February 18th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Blogs are smarter?
February 18th, 2009 at 9:02 am
@Wilhelm – I guess it was ready enough for them to make a quick buck off box sales, but it definitely wasn’t ready enough to sustain long-term subs from as many people as they originally considered to be successful (500k was their benchmark). Ostermark has been a destination server since the free xfers began and yet the most I’ve seen online in the past month has been med/med. Most times we’re lingering around low/med or low/low. It seems we’ve lost MORE people since the 1-29-09 and 1.2 patch announcements. Shocking because I found them to be pretty good.
@Anjin – ArenaNet told us we would be able to beta test GW2 in the second half of 2008 way back in spring 2007. Considering the financial report states GW2 is TBA in 2010-2011, how can you not see that as a delay? It’s a delay of beta at the very least. Ravious stated himself after listening to the conference call that their aspirations for GW2 completely changed during development. It was originally going to be a simple sequel. Now it is going to be an entirely new kind of game. Don’t you think that would have some kind of effect? Wouldn’t you think that would “delay” something? You have to read between the lines here, but you don’t have to squint too hard.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Although I been listening to your podcast and reading the blog for quite some time this is the first time I post any comment so, first things first… nice blog!
As a GW player and affectionate I been following all this NCSoft Report / ArenaNet letter to fans issue with some curiosity.
As far I can see ArenaNet drawn their own objectives for Guild Wars 2 and, even today, we can see on GW2 FAQ that the game was supposed to be on a Beta test phase. Saying at this time that “Guild Wars 2 is a large and ambitious game, and we’re going to take the time to do it right” was nothing to do whit previous statement and have nothing to do with “Blizzard” line. I respect the present position, it seems more honest and realistic, but denying previous statement doesn’t seem very clever.
I totally disagree whit Nat and some other guys that say that NCSoft is delaying it to make room for Aion. For a commercial point this makes no sense. Why only one competitive product if you can have two, especially if there is no incompatibility based on financial models?
So, for me, the basic question is: Is NCSoft drawing a limit for ArenaNet? Yes.