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The Penny Arcade Expo starts tomorrow. ArenaNet will be at booth #642. The full details are on GuildWars.com.
If you won’t be attending the convention, you can get live updates through ArenaNet’s Twitter and Flickr pages.
Guild Wars made PC Gamer’s Top 100 list at number 52.
An MMO without monthly fees? Who’d want to play that? Millions of you, apparently. Beautiful worlds and characters plus a novel system of instancing - only towns are truly massively multiplayer - make this a pleasantly different MMO.
Tim says “Every time the devs put out one of their standalone expansions, they raise their own quality bar. It’s a credit to their commitment that, even today, they refuse to charge a fee.”
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End made Next Generation’s list of the top 100 selling games of the last 12 months at number 19. Across seven platforms, including the Nintendo DS version on which I worked, the game sold 2.2 million copies.
ArenaNet announced that the Guild Wars franchise has sold more than 5 million copies since the original game was released in 2005. Much cake was enjoyed.
In the process, I found out that it is now impossible to have cake in the office without someone referencing Portal.
Kieron Gillen wrote a piece on Guild Wars 2 over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun as part of their Games for 2008 series.
This is a little more tentative than many games we’re talking about in this series. ArenaNet have talked about starting to Beta-test thing in late 2008. While that probably won’t be a public, someone will hopefully be playing this before the end of the year. So why, with it that far off, is it worth talking about?
I guess it’s because that, after Guild Wars 2, there’s a chance of everything changing and that nags at me.
NCsoft Europe set up shop at the London Film and Comic Con earlier this month. In a meeting of my past and present, Jack Sparrow stopped by to pose for a quick photo with the Gwen and Dervish models that were working at the booth.
Unfortunately, it appears that their encounter ended with the photo as I can find no evidence of a duel to determine the better. That scythe looks rather menacing, but, then again, Jack does tend to have a rather undying quality. I guess we’ll have to wait until next year.
The full gallery is up on Flickr.
Guild Wars: Eye of the North went live today at 12:00 a.m.
ArenaNet has issued an official press release.
NCsoft® and ArenaNet® have launched Guild Wars: Eye of the NorthTM, the first expansion to the Guild Wars® franchise of subscription-free, online roleplaying games. Guild Wars players who purchase the expansion can access Eye of the North content through any of the multi-million-selling Guild Wars campaigns–Guild Wars, Guild Wars FactionsTM, or Guild Wars NightfallTM. The expansion also includes an innovative feature that allows players to take achievements they have earned over the years with them into the forthcoming Guild Wars 2TM.
Guild Wars: Eye of the North, continues the subscription-free business model pioneered by ArenaNet. The expansion is now available at the Official Guild Wars In-game Store and at Plaync.com, as well as from retailers in North America and Europe, for an expected suggested retail price of $39.99.
Last night, we celebrated the game’s launch as it became available to players worldwide. This was a unique experience, because every other game that I’ve worked on has gone on sale in retail stores at about 9 a.m. (or whenever the store opens) on Monday or Tuesday morning. Any celebration would usually occur when the final build was submitted to the publisher, often a month or two before the game was released, or a short while after it appeared on store shelves. However, last night, we massed in an open part of the building along with the other NCsoft offices from around the world who joined via video conference to count down the final seconds before players were allowed to experience Guild Wars: Eye of the North. Games tend to go out with a whimper rather than a bang; the last few weeks are often dedicated to tracking down the remaining critical bugs before sending the game off to be manufactured. It was nice to give Guild Wars: Eye of the North the send off it deserved.
See you in Tyria.
The release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North is rapidly approaching. Previews for the game have been posted at a number of different websites.
GW:EN is available for pre-order, or, if you don’t own any of the Guild Wars games, you can pick up Guild Wars Platinum Edition which also includes the original game.
ArenaNet has released a new trailer for Guild Wars: Eye of the North.
High resolution versions are available at the official Guild Wars website.
