Guild Wars 2

A group of my friends wanted to play Guild Wars 2 for a bit to see if they would join me in HoT; however, we are only able to find the Physical Editions of the base game.

Are no more Digital Editions from legit retailers going to exist for the base game?

Likely not. The new ‘base’ game is core+HoT. Probably, the only way to get a core-only Serial Key is finding old physical-box stock in a retail store.

I guess one would have to search the internet for any authorized retailers still selling the old (digital download) Serial Keys, but I’m guessing you or your friends already did that.

Good luck.

The base game has been discontinued. What’s left from 3rd parties is all that remains.

If they want to try the game, just buy HoT directly from buy.guildwars2.com. That way they can request a refund if they choose to do so (within 30 days).

Thanks for the information. I guess we can try looking at the physical copies.

I don’t think anywhere has digital keys of official support.

When the heroic edition came out all new accounts got it automatically, even if the code was from before then. For example my husbands account code came from a friends Collector’s Edition, and all of those were made pre-launch. But he got the heroic edition items because it was after the switch.

I wonder if it could be the same with HoT. Since they’ve effectively replaced the base game with the expansion version it might be that all existing account keys are now HoT codes, and that’s why you can’t find any digital copies of the base game on it’s own – all the retailers would have to do is change the description on their site.

Danikat.8537:

When the heroic edition came out all new accounts got it automatically, even if the code was from before then. For example my husbands account code came from a friends Collector’s Edition, and all of those were made pre-launch. But he got the heroic edition items because it was after the switch.

I wonder if it could be the same with HoT. Since they’ve effectively replaced the base game with the expansion version it might be that all existing account keys are now HoT codes, and that’s why you can’t find any digital copies of the base game on it’s own – all the retailers would have to do is change the description on their site.

It could very well be the case.

I know Amazon has the physical copies (how limited I don’t know) but I will try to use that.

I just found it a little surprising they won’t let anyone buy the Digital Base Game for a cheaper price to get them hyped into HoT which they may upgrade into.

Now new players have to buy the full package or find a physical copy. Its not horrible its just inconvenient and for some it could be more than they would be willing to spend to play a new game for a bit.

Regardless thanks for the information!

If you do buy a physical copy, or one otherwise branded as just the base game please do let us know if it includes the expansion. It would be helpful to know for future reference as I’m sure this will come up again.

Danikat.8537:

If you do buy a physical copy, or one otherwise branded as just the base game please do let us know if it includes the expansion. It would be helpful to know for future reference as I’m sure this will come up again.

They won’t. HOT converts your account to the new key if you bought it externally. So the old keys definitely are separate.

They would have a different algorithm to detect the key as valid/invalid and HoT/not