Guild Wars 2

NCsoft’s Managing Director, Seong Chan Nah talks about Guild Wars 2 sales and expansion.

“In terms of box sales and microtransactions are still very strong, and of course we are preparing an expansion pack but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something we are still monitoring… We are looking to the performance of the game and then we will decide what will be the best time to do the launch. It’s still something we are thinking about”

Source: http://115.68.0.61/CT/NCSOFT/2013_1Q/index.html

Edit: NCsoft earning reports (sales, etc) – www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/prfile.aspx?ID=63315FE5-D86D-46D5-A8C0-0C8E74993F6A

All I can say is can’t wait! No matter how poor I’ll become even if it will cost a fortune I will still want to get it

Translated out of corporate speak that reads “we plan to do an expansion pack at some point but currently haven’t started but you’ll give me kitten if I say that so ill just tell you we have started and give a load of vague reasons for not having a scheduled release”.

Kaiem.8297:

Translated out of corporate speak that reads “we plan to do an expansion pack at some point but currently haven’t started but you’ll give me kitten if I say that so ill just tell you we have started and give a load of vague reasons for not having a scheduled release”.

Not quite sure this is true. In fact, I’m pretty sure they have done some work on an expansion. But expansions in MMOs are used for business reasons. One of those reasons is to retrigger interest in the game when it starts to wane. Another is to put out something when a competitor is trying to get interest in the game.

Take the launch of the game in the first place. It clearly wasn’t ready. There were too many bugs. Even the trading post didn’t work at launch. But it was launched strategically to be out a month before MoP came out. That was good timing on Anet’s part. They made a lot of sales they might not have made if they’d launched six weeks later.

These days, a paid expansion is a big deal to an MMO, and the timing of the release to maximize profits is something every MMO does.

kikittener.9578:

I always knewd that ncsoft have the strong will over gw2. Different of gw1 where the balls was in the anet pants. This is most Korean than you think.

Why do you think it was different when GW1 was out? ncsoft was put of Anet before GW1 came out and the 6 month expiation was part of ncsoft making there money. HOW would not putting out content you need to pay for be a good idea from the view of making money? If any thing this free content we have gotten so far is making them lose money for the potential sales of an expiation that would have this content. Its just a complete lack of logic its right up there with “they want to make there game worst so they make more money.”

Kaiem.8297:

Translated out of corporate speak that reads “we plan to do an expansion pack at some point but currently haven’t started but you’ll give me kitten if I say that so ill just tell you we have started and give a load of vague reasons for not having a scheduled release”.

I read it to say “we’re going to release an expansion when it’s in our best financial interest to do so.”

Edit: I personally take the fact that they aren’t rushing an expansion out the door asap as a good sign that the game is doing well.

Angelus.1042:

Ah “soft” has the iron ball grip of death on “net” I see….

Or, they’re saying exactly what Anet has said themselves.

They’re interested in and will likely produce an expansion or so in the future, but will be continuing to strengthen and reinforce the current game at present.

GW2 is still fresh off the assembly line, very new and young for an MMO. It’s not even a year old yet.

Even so, we’ve been getting small free content updates on a monthly basis no more then a few months after launch.

The story is really being fleshed out. They’re very devoted to the core game right now, and that’s awesome.

What they’ve done and what they’re doing now is nothing short of incredible.

I’m pretty sure that work on an expansion has already started with a very small team. Sure, they want to strenghten the current world, but what good does adding living story, just to remove it after a few months? If the dungeon and the events stayed, then that would be logical, but to add and then remove doesn’t seem logical. It’s like taking one step forward and then one back. Only thing their currently strenghtening is everything BESIDES the current world, like WvW, PvP and quality of life improvments.

Though, saying that they don’t “meat up” the current world would also be a lie as refugees have now taken into Southsun and hopefully the new patches will add some new events and extra activity.

Gee I remember 3 months ago when the NCSOFT conference call said the expansion would be ready for the 2nd half of 2013 and days later ANet publicly said …

I suspect the reality is that discussions and planning are under way for the expansion but not a great deal more. As others has stated Ncsoft will purely be looking at an expansion from an economical point of view and there isn’t a pressing need for it just yet. My post was more to highlight that people shouldn’t take anything from Ncsoft about a GW2 expansion too seriously, particularly not anything this vague.

White Wolf.3291:

NCsoft’s Managing Director, Seong Chan Nah talks about Guild Wars 2 sales and expansion.

“In terms of box sales and microtransactions are still very strong, and of course we are preparing an expansion pack but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something we are still monitoring… We are looking to the performance of the game and then we will decide what will be the best time to do the launch. It’s still something we are thinking about”

Source: http://115.68.0.61/CT/NCSOFT/2013_1Q/index.html

Translation:

Guild wars 2 is still making money. When it starts to slow down we will allow them to release an expansion.

Now, or at least in a not too distant future, is a great time to release an expansion pack when you take into concideration that the main competitor is doing awfully at the moment.

That said, I hope they don’t rush anything.

As others in this post have said, this is basically NCSoft reassuring its investors that Guild Wars 2 is still going strong and making money and that when the games popularity starts to wane, they will release an expansion to generate renewed interest in Guild Wars 2.

i have bad experiences with korean mmo before..
now that i know gw2 is handled by koreans..
i hope it won’t go the road other korean mmo has gone..
“pay to win”.. getting every new content in to the cash shop and rng gambling..

Grounder.7381:

i have bad experiences with korean mmo before..
now that i know gw2 is handled by koreans..
i hope it won’t go the road other korean mmo has gone..
“pay to win”.. getting every new content in to the cash shop and rng gambling..

The funny thing is all the changes in the gemstore came after they hired a non korean woman from nexon.

Grounder.7381:

i have bad experiences with korean mmo before..
now that i know gw2 is handled by koreans..
i hope it won’t go the road other korean mmo has gone..
“pay to win”.. getting every new content in to the cash shop and rng gambling..

RNG gambling is certainly already in the game; it’s prevalent and will always be so. I wouldn’t worry about any of the other stuff, though. Grinding – real grinding, not the stuff vocal minority of players constantly whine about on this forum – and pay to win are things the ANet team has gone to great lengths to avoid.

RNG gambling is certainly already in the game

From next patch:

Get packed for the return to Southsun Cove. An assortment of souvenirs from the Southsun islands. This chest contains Southsun crafting materials and a chance to get a wide variety of items such as shoulder skins, new boosts and conveniences, and a rare chance to get new weapon skins and mini pets.

Enjoy Anets rare chances. My collection of minis is over unless they are at the very least tradeable.

This just confirms what ANET has publicly stated, the expansion is being worked on but not a priority. Why bother posting it?

It seems more like they are watching how the sales are doing and could even cancel the expansion if this does not improve. It’s not the cashcow they wanted it to be.

Treeline.3865:

RNG gambling is certainly already in the game

From next patch:

Get packed for the return to Southsun Cove. An assortment of souvenirs from the Southsun islands. This chest contains Southsun crafting materials and a chance to get a wide variety of items such as shoulder skins, new boosts and conveniences, and a rare chance to get new weapon skins and mini pets.

Enjoy Anets rare chances. My collection of minis is over unless they are at the very least tradeable.

The way ANET releases limited edition RNG mini’s, I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to get every single one. I’d just focus on one’s I really want, if I were you.

aspirine.6852:

It seems more like they are watching how the sales are doing and could even cancel the expansion if this does not improve. It’s not the cashcow they wanted it to be.

It’s always been the other way around. While MMOs are selling, they generally don’t launch expansions. Expansions are what you launch when you need the influx of money.

aspirine.6852:

It seems more like they are watching how the sales are doing and could even cancel the expansion if this does not improve. It’s not the cashcow they wanted it to be.

The game had sales in the 1st quarter that was only eclipsed by their old mainstay Lineage. It beat their other “new” MMO Blade & Soul soundly.

It’s called testing the waters. Positive feedback will result in further progress of said expansion. Negative feedback, well you do the math.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

It’s called testing the waters. Positive feedback will result in further progress of said expansion. Negative feedback, well you do the math.

The only reason this game is still running is because is free to play. I don’t have many positive feedback about this place. I’m just waiting anything, anything that come about and say bubye “guild warriors 2”. You
Can’t even say what you think about all the wrong and bad stuff o this game in the forum whitout been infracted.

Since the 1st time I tell myself that this game is another Korean grind feat but whit babies and ken directions.

This is my way to think.

Pretty much means we are making bank off the gem shop and will only release the expansion when we start to see sales slow

kikittener.9578:

The only reason this game is still running is because is free to play. I don’t have many positive feedback about this place. I’m just waiting anything, anything that come about and say bubye “guild warriors 2”. You
Can’t even say what you think about all the wrong and bad stuff o this game in the forum whitout been infracted.

Since the 1st time I tell myself that this game is another Korean grind feat but whit babies and ken directions.

This is my way to think.

Don’t assume why the game is still running or not because you don’t like it.
Also if you think that the game is grindy then you probsbly have not played any other MMOs.

I’m not really too worried about when the first expansion pack will be released… Fortunately, I have still have a lot to do and I am glad that they are doing well that making one isn’t of urgency. Guild Wars 1 had some really amazing EPs though, so I’m sure they’ll do an excellent job when they finishing fixing the major core problems. It will hopefully be worth the wait!

Mirta.5029:

kikittener.9578:

The only reason this game is still running is because is free to play. I don’t have many positive feedback about this place. I’m just waiting anything, anything that come about and say bubye “guild warriors 2”. You
Can’t even say what you think about all the wrong and bad stuff o this game in the forum whitout been infracted.

Since the 1st time I tell myself that this game is another Korean grind feat but whit babies and ken directions.

This is my way to think.

Don’t assume why the game is still running or not because you don’t like it.
Also if you think that the game is grindy then you probsbly have not played any other MMOs.

More than you can imagine been playing mmos since my 13 and I’m 31. I’m just thank that you only grind for skins here and no for powerful items.

Love how they always claim they are making loads of money when they don’t report to the public. Amazing. Remember when EA did that continuously for months post launch of SWTOR? And the 1.7 million active accounts statement?

Yeah not going to trust it until I see it. Especially the number of players thing. Now that they have questing it’s very much impossible to tell.

darkace.8925:

I read it to say “we’re going to release an expansion when it’s in our best financial interest to do so.”
<Snip>

Yeah it makes sense.

My first thought would be around the time ESO launches, or shortly afterwards.

Vayne.8563:

It’s always been the other way around. While MMOs are selling, they generally don’t launch expansions. Expansions are what you launch when you need the influx of money.

Many of them seem to put expansions onto a regular release cycle.

WoW even starts making X-Pac 2 now about 6 months before X-Pac 1 goes live. EQII has them like clockwork, but I don’t follow it well enough to know details. Guild Wars 1 had them about once every 6 to 9 months for the first 3, then had the fourth some time after and called it quits.

City of Heroes had two, period. City of Villains shortly after launch, and then Paragon years later.

There doesn’t seem to be a predictable pattern.

For GW2 it will be a bit of a balancing act.

We know there are 2 other confirmed continents. There is a fourth continent that never hit anything live anywhere and has never been mentioned in in-game lore so it could be scrapped or anythinged.

But for the other 2, they HAVE to come out or some point or their lack will hurt the game. But coming out too fast could also hurt the game.

They have to find that perfect point where the fans have nothing left but to demand it, but haven’t started quitting over it yet.

“They have to find that perfect point where the fans have nothing left but to demand it, but haven’t started quitting over it yet.”

I would like to say : now because a lot of people are tired with this poor content …

They can say whatever the kitten they like in a conference call. you cant deny sales and share prices

I honestly hope they don’t wait too long to release an expansion pack as this living story stuff isn’t really meaty enough in the long term. I’m aching to explore new land masses and see new armors and stuff and only EP’s bring things like those.

Here’s what we can guarantee about:

~~THERE WILL BE NO EXPANSION IN 2013!~~

Why do I say that? Because they already have planned and set in motion the entire year’s worth of Living Story and content releases related to that and the current game. With that road mapped out, and the fact that the game won’t become 1-year-old until nearly Q4, it’s easy to deduce that there won’t be an expansion this year.

Possibly not until Q4 2014 at the very earliest.

Siphaed.9235:

Here’s what we can guarantee about:

~~THERE WILL BE NO EXPANSION IN 2013!~~

Why do I say that? Because they already have planned and set in motion the entire year’s worth of Living Story and content releases related to that and the current game. With that road mapped out, and the fact that the game won’t become 1-year-old until nearly Q4, it’s easy to deduce that there won’t be an expansion this year.

Possibly not until Q4 2014 at the very earliest.

Living story doesn’t have to stop only because an expansion came out you know.
That being said I believe that the earliest possible date for it might be the end of 2013.
Why? First of all – holiday season, Christmas is a very popular time to release new games and make a profit. Secondly this comes out:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/692/feature/7331/How-To-Train-Your-Dragonkittenml (replace that “kitten” with s(dot)html)
has the same combat style as guild wars 2, questing system includes both regular quests and Guild Wars 2 hears, their PVP system matters – players fight over land, the ability to build their own buildings and set their own rules. It can be an actual serious competitor to Guild Wars 2, therefore releasing an expansion pack at the same time as this MMO would make sense.
Now however I do say “the earliest”. There is a possibility that we won’t see any expansions until at least 2014.

So that’s what it looks like when you inject dragons into every aspect of a mmo for profits…

I’ll have to pass on that one. It’s interesting looking. I’ll give you that, but I would fear for the sanity of the fantasy playerbase, if that is suppose to be major competition for gw2.

Erukk.1408:

So that’s what it looks like when you inject dragons into every aspect of a mmo for profits…

I’ll have to pass on that one. It’s interesting looking. I’ll give you that, but I would fear for the sanity of the fantasy playerbase, if that is suppose to be major competition for gw2.

well it’s the only upcoming MMO that has similar combat, questing and overall style to GW2, but has superior PVP and politics systems. So yeah, judging from the mechanics I would name it as a fair competitor.

White Wolf.3291:

NCsoft’s Managing Director, Seong Chan Nah talks about Guild Wars 2 sales and expansion.

“In terms of box sales and microtransactions are still very strong, and of course we are preparing an expansion pack but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something we are still monitoring… We are looking to the performance of the game and then we will decide what will be the best time to do the launch. It’s still something we are thinking about”

Source: http://115.68.0.61/CT/NCSOFT/2013_1Q/index.html

Theyre basically saying they have an expansion pack ready,or nearly ready to launch ? This would Really be the worst time to launch it tbh…since
at the current state of guild wars 2,i will not buy an expansion pack.

Kichwas.7152:

Vayne.8563:

It’s always been the other way around. While MMOs are selling, they generally don’t launch expansions. Expansions are what you launch when you need the influx of money.

Many of them seem to put expansions onto a regular release cycle.

WoW even starts making X-Pac 2 now about 6 months before X-Pac 1 goes live. EQII has them like clockwork, but I don’t follow it well enough to know details. Guild Wars 1 had them about once every 6 to 9 months for the first 3, then had the fourth some time after and called it quits.

City of Heroes had two, period. City of Villains shortly after launch, and then Paragon years later.

There doesn’t seem to be a predictable pattern.

For GW2 it will be a bit of a balancing act.

We know there are 2 other confirmed continents. There is a fourth continent that never hit anything live anywhere and has never been mentioned in in-game lore so it could be scrapped or anythinged.

But for the other 2, they HAVE to come out or some point or their lack will hurt the game. But coming out too fast could also hurt the game.

They have to find that perfect point where the fans have nothing left but to demand it, but haven’t started quitting over it yet.

I’m obviously not talking about WoW, because WoW doesn’t have to worry about sales falling off. They fell off to 9.1 million subscribers last year..do the math at 15 bucks a month and you’ll see that WoW is in a class by itself.

Guild Wars 1 also can’t be counted, because the entire marketing plan wasn’t based around subscription prices or even the cash shop. The marketing plan of the game was about bringing out new expansions in a fast manner.

But there are hundreds of MMOs out there, and the cycle, even in WoW is always that the player density always falls off as players finish the old content. They stop logging in. They wait for the new content. Guild Wars 2 has a similar traffic pattern when you see the monthly stuff released, for a few days to a week, traffic gets mad busy, then slows down again until the next month’s patch.

But most MMOs don’t have monthly content patches. Most of their big patches are all done at one time, with the idea of bringing people back to the game. It’s a balancing act for most developers.

You can only make a certain amount of content in the time you have. You have old content out there that people are going through. Enough of the people get through all the content, they get bored and move to other games. You don’t want to release a patch too early because you don’t want to waste it. You want it to have maximum impact…because you can’t make another patch with a small staff soon enough to make more people log in more often. And that’s what it’s about for most MMOs, getting people to log in.

So the population drops, an expansion brings them back, which is what most MMOs are looking for.

Mirta.5029:

Siphaed.9235:

Here’s what we can guarantee about:

~~THERE WILL BE NO EXPANSION IN 2013!~~

Why do I say that? Because they already have planned and set in motion the entire year’s worth of Living Story and content releases related to that and the current game. With that road mapped out, and the fact that the game won’t become 1-year-old until nearly Q4, it’s easy to deduce that there won’t be an expansion this year.

Possibly not until Q4 2014 at the very earliest.

Living story doesn’t have to stop only because an expansion came out you know.
That being said I believe that the earliest possible date for it might be the end of 2013.
Why? First of all – holiday season, Christmas is a very popular time to release new games and make a profit. Secondly this comes out:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/692/feature/7331/How-To-Train-Your-Dragonkittenml (replace that “kitten” with s(dot)html)
has the same combat style as guild wars 2, questing system includes both regular quests and Guild Wars 2 hears, their PVP system matters – players fight over land, the ability to build their own buildings and set their own rules. It can be an actual serious competitor to Guild Wars 2, therefore releasing an expansion pack at the same time as this MMO would make sense.
Now however I do say “the earliest”. There is a possibility that we won’t see any expansions until at least 2014.

First off, the real link is here: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/692/feature/7331/Dragons-Prophet-How-To-Train-Your-Dragonkittenml
The game is called “Dragon’s Prophet”

Secondly, it’s not anywhere near close to being a competitor to GW2 as it’s more along the lines of Pokemon with Dragons.

Lastly, you have to understand that although the IGG (that’s “Instant Gratification Generation”) likes to instantly demand an expansion after a game’s been out for 6 months, 3 months, 9 months, or whatever the case may be…they’re not going to get it. Content takes time to develop.

This game is only 9 months old and there’s no way in the world that they’ll have an expansion within the 1st year. Right now, it’s in CONCEPT PHASE. What’s that mean? It means that they’ve scribbled some ideas about what should be in an expansion on a piece of paper and a white board. That’s it.

May is month 5 of a 12 month year, which would mean that they’d only have 6 months at the most to make, test, and market an expansion to meet your “earliest holiday 2013” ideal. Not. going. to. happen.

Sure the Living Story stuff won’t stop while they make an expansion, or launch one. But right now they’re trying to focus on stabilizing the game’s content and fixing the holes that were left when priorities changed during the pre-launch crunch. Take for example how Polymock was put on hold. If they don’t launch that as ‘free content updates’ and try to sell it as boxed expansion content, they’ll have a riot on their hands. Not good business. A.Net knows how to do good business, so don’t question them and try to push an agenda of super fast content for some reason or another

. Sit back and enjoy the content we have now. The game is good as it is now. Have you played everything of it, gotten your Legendary weapons, leader-board top 10, and Rank 2,000 in WvWvW? Doubtful.

Siphaed.9235:

First off, the real link is here: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/692/feature/7331/Dragons-Prophet-How-To-Train-Your-Dragonkittenml
The game is called “Dragon’s Prophet”

Secondly, it’s not anywhere near close to being a competitor to GW2 as it’s more along the lines of Pokemon with Dragons.

Lastly, you have to understand that although the IGG (that’s “Instant Gratification Generation”) likes to instantly demand an expansion after a game’s been out for 6 months, 3 months, 9 months, or whatever the case may be…they’re not going to get it. Content takes time to develop.

This game is only 9 months old and there’s no way in the world that they’ll have an expansion within the 1st year. Right now, it’s in CONCEPT PHASE. What’s that mean? It means that they’ve scribbled some ideas about what should be in an expansion on a piece of paper and a white board. That’s it.

May is month 5 of a 12 month year, which would mean that they’d only have 6 months at the most to make, test, and market an expansion to meet your “earliest holiday 2013” ideal. Not. going. to. happen.

Sure the Living Story stuff won’t stop while they make an expansion, or launch one. But right now they’re trying to focus on stabilizing the game’s content and fixing the holes that were left when priorities changed during the pre-launch crunch. Take for example how Polymock was put on hold. If they don’t launch that as ‘free content updates’ and try to sell it as boxed expansion content, they’ll have a riot on their hands. Not good business. A.Net knows how to do good business, so don’t question them and try to push an agenda of super fast content for some reason or another

. Sit back and enjoy the content we have now. The game is good as it is now. Have you played everything of it, gotten your Legendary weapons, leader-board top 10, and Rank 2,000 in WvWvW? Doubtful.

1. Regarding dragon’s prophet – it’s your opinion. Most people would say that Tera is not a competitor to Guild Wars 2, yet with growing sales, it is, because it offers something new and attracts the same B2P market.
2.

and of course we are preparing an expansion pack but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something we are still monitoring…

Companies tend to start developing sequels as early as the game launches. For all you know they already have an EP prepared, but are thinking about the best time for release.
3. 2013 Holiday season will make GW2 1 year and 6 months old. That’s about 8 months from now. Surely it’s enough time to release polymock arenas and all that stuff.
4. Having in mind how many people are saying that they have exhausted all the content and how many are asking for an expansion (see the Cantha thread) they would surely NOT have a riot on their hands.

Edited with NCsoft 1Q 2013 earning reports (sales, etc)

White Wolf.3291:

Edited with NCsoft 1Q 2013 earning reports (sales, etc)

I’m surprised Lineage is still doing so good in there while the western servers were closed like a year ago.

Glad to see this news from NCSoft. After all the boasting from ArenaNet blogs I don’t know any more, what to believe, if they are talking. Living story is nothing but dissapointing. From the first day. Every single person is able to think up those tiny bits of story during a single weekend. I really hope the developers who did all the good stuff in this game work on the expansion. This would explain the mediocre content of the living story.

Don’t look too much on what the devs of ArenaNet told us about expansion. Most they told us in their blogs have not been true, just boasting.

I don’t get why people thought there never would be an expansion just cause they didn’t make one a few months after the game, they’ve said they would be before but expect it like a year or two later.

Angelus.1042:

Ah “soft” has the iron ball grip of death on “net” I see….

They have for the entire life-cycle of GW2. Which is why it’s just not really a game that should have the words “Guild Wars” in the title…

Grileenor.1497:

Don’t look too much on what the devs of ArenaNet told us about expansion. Most they told us in their blogs have not been true, just boasting.

They do tend to waaaaaay over-hype, don’t they?

Well, with the direction this game has taken since November, and with the completely underwhelming Personal Storylines and Flame & Frost, all I can really see in an expansion is more leveling, more gear-grind, and possibly a new piece of real estate (that’s not Asian-themed, and therefore not Cantha) to play the same world bosses and events in over and over and over and over and over and over…

But no doubt they’ll have some fantastic blog posts and promo videos out on random social networking sites that describe the game that we all want, but will never, ever see released.

Yea…I think ArenaNet and NCSoft have done a fantastic job of killing any interest I might have had in a GW2 expansion.

When are they actually going to release the real Guild Wars 2? You know, the one they have been describing since they announced it when Eye of the North released? I’d be interested in that.

Chuo.4238:

Angelus.1042:

Ah “soft” has the iron ball grip of death on “net” I see….

They have for the entire life-cycle of GW2. Which is why it’s just not really a game that should have the words “Guild Wars” in the title…

Grileenor.1497:

Don’t look too much on what the devs of ArenaNet told us about expansion. Most they told us in their blogs have not been true, just boasting.

They do tend to waaaaaay over-hype, don’t they?

Well, with the direction this game has taken since November, and with the completely underwhelming Personal Storylines and Flame & Frost, all I can really see in an expansion is more leveling, more gear-grind, and possibly a new piece of real estate (that’s not Asian-themed, and therefore not Cantha) to play the same world bosses and events in over and over and over and over and over and over…

But no doubt they’ll have some fantastic blog posts and promo videos out on random social networking sites that describe the game that we all want, but will never, ever see released.

Yea…I think ArenaNet and NCSoft have done a fantastic job of killing any interest I might have had in a GW2 expansion.

When are they actually going to release the real Guild Wars 2? You know, the one they have been describing since they announced it when Eye of the North released? I’d be interested in that.

The problem is they delivered the game that some of us wanted, just not the game YOU wanted. There is a portion of the player base who feels just like you and a portion who feels just like me. So when you say stuff like they’ll be showing the game we all want but never see, maybe you should remove the word all…because you’re not talking for all of us.

In some ways I think they’ve been “working on” an expansion since before GW2 even had a launch date.

There’s a lot of large chunks of content which they’ve obviously done a lot of the initial work on – concept art, lore development etc. and then consciously chosen to leave out of the game completely. Cantha and Elona being the obvious ones (we got a whole chaper of GW:Beyond for Cantha and a lot of detail on what happened to Elona for almost nothing in GW2 so far) but also things like the koda and the tengu homelands, guild halls, player housing etc.

All of that and more could, and probably will be, in an expansion (or spread over a few expansions) and when they come to actively work on it as one of their main projects they’ll have that ground work to build on.

As for the quote in the OP all that’s really saying is that they are going to do one sometime in the future but they don’t think now is the right time.

I’d agree. If their current products are enough to meet their sales targets, the developers want to keep exploring what they can do with the living story, existing players are happy with the free updates and a lot of new players are still coming along who will need time to get to grips with the game as it is before they think about an expansion it doesn’t make sense for anyone for them to spend the resources it’d require (not just money but time and effort taken away from other things) to make an expansion pack now.